Two men have been jailed for their roles in an assault which has left a 20-year-old Co Limerick student in a permanent vegetative state.
Denis Franklin (22), from Pallasgreen has been in a nursing home since the attack near Cork city centre in February 2002. The court heard today his future is bleak.
Ian Cronin, a 21-year-old painter from Shamrock Avenue, Douglas, Cork, pleaded guilty last October at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm to Mr Franklin.
Judge Patrick Moran jailed Cronin for four years for knocking Mr Franklin to the ground and kicking and punching him as a group of others also attacked him on February 17th, 2002 on Grand Canal.
Judge Moran noted Cronin's previous conviction for an assault just five months before the attack on Mr Franklin.
A second young man, William St Ledger, (21) with an address at Woodview, Pinecroft, Douglas was jailed for nine months for his part in the same incident.
He had pleaded guilty to a charge of violent disorder. He was one of three men acquitted in March of assault causing harm to Mr Franklin after the trial judge directed the jury to find them not guilty.