Football hooliganism: Roma fan to be sentenced for brutally injuring Liverpool supporter

Roma fan Simone Mastrelli has pleaded guilty at Preston Crown Court to assaulting Liverpool supporter Sean Cox outside Anfield ahead of last April’s Champions League semi-final first-leg tie.

Mastrelli, from Rome, had been extradited last month after being arrested on a European Arrest Warrant in Italy in connection with the attack on father-of-three Mr Cox, from Dunboyne in Co Meath, Ireland.

Mastrelli entered a guilty plea to unlawfully and maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm on Mr Cox.

Sentencing by the Recorder of Preston, Judge Mark Brown, will follow shortly.

The 30-year-old also pleaded not guilty to a separate count of violent disorder, also on April 24, which will lie on file after the plea was accepted by the Crown.

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Mr Cox suffered serious catastrophic head injuries in the attack and has been recovering at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaire.

He spent four-and-a-half weeks at the Walton Centre in Liverpool, a specialist neurological unit for brain injuries, following the attack, before being airlifted to another specialist unit at Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital.

In relation to the incident, another Roma supporter, Filippo Lombardi, was found not guilty at Preston Crown Court of inflicting grievous bodily harm, in October 2018.

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