Soccer thug cleared over Seán attack is jailed for violence
A ROMA FC fan cleared of assaulting Meath father-of-three Seán Cox before a Liverpool FC game has been jailed for three years for violent disorder.
Filippo Lombardi, 21, had admitted disorder at a Champions League semi-final between Liverpool and Roma in April. He was cleared of the attack on Mr Cox after a trial.
Mr Cox, 53, from Dunboyne suffered ‘catastrophic injuries’ when he was attacked on Walton Breck Road in Anfield, Liverpool, before the game.
Lombardi was one of a group of about 30 Roma supporters who made their way down Venmore Street on to Walton Breck Road near Liverpool FC’s stadium just after 7pm on April 24.
Lombardi was seen on footage swinging a belt as another man punched Mr Cox, causing him to fall to the ground.
Jailing Lombardi yesterday at Preston Crown Court, Judge Mark Brown said the sentence would have been considerably longer if he had been convicted of the attack on Mr Cox.
He told Lombardi: ‘Nonetheless, it is a feature of the case that during the violent disorder he [Mr Cox] was severely injured and that
‘You were in the thick of it’
cannot be ignored. The violent disorder did not end with the attack on him because, as he was lying unconscious on the ground, it carried on regardless near to him – and you, as is clear from the footage, were in the thick of it.’
Mr Cox suffered a severe traumatic brain injury in the attack and is still being treated in a rehabilitation centre, the court has previously heard.
Judge Brown said he did not accept that Lombardi had not been there to cause trouble.
He said: ‘There is no doubt in my mind that your purpose was to cause a violent clash with the Liverpool fans and that’s demonstrated vividly in film footage.
‘The footage shows that you had an active role and your assertion in evidence and in your basis of plea that you were just looking for signs for away supporter sections and were suddenly confronted by Liverpool fans is, in my judgment, nonsense.’
The judge said footage showed Lombardi using his belt ‘as a whip’.
He said: ‘Your actions and those of the other Roma supporters in the group are likely to have scarred the good name of football. In my judgment, you have brought disgrace on AS Roma supporters.
‘The game will probably be remembered not because of the football skill on the field or the result, but because of the awful tragedy Mr Cox endured and the violent disorder that took place outside the ground.’
The court heard another man had been arrested in Rome in connection with the attack and was awaiting extradition.
Judge Brown praised Mr Cox’s family, including his wife Martina, who had been in court for much of the trial and said they had acted with the ‘greatest of dignity and respect’.
Mr Cox’s brother, Martin, 46, told the court last week how his brother had been ‘delighted’ when they were offered tickets for the match in the week before the game. But about the game he said: ‘I recall we heard some noises, not good noises – we just sensed there was something not right.
‘At that time people come across us in dark clothes, chanting.’
He said the group were chanting in an aggressive way.
He said: ‘I turned to Seán as if to say, “Let’s get out of here”, or whatever, but as I turned Seán was lying on the ground.’
Martin Cox told the court he had not seen what had caused his brother to fall to the ground.
He said: ‘I just froze for a second, just in complete shock. My next instinct was to go straight down to Seán to see if he was OK. I bent down to Seán and, as I was bent over, I could feel a kick on the back and I sort of lost balance, stumbled a bit, but I didn’t look up, I just gathered myself around Seán.’
He told the court how his brother had recently been moved to the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin.
Martin Cox said: ‘He can’t talk, he just whispers.’ He said his brother was not able to sit up unaided. ‘He can slightly push himself but he has to be helped to be pushed up fully,’ he said.
Alison Gurden, defending, told the judge Lombardi was of previously good character and had played as a goalkeeper in the AS Roma academy between the ages of 13 and 16.
She said: ‘Mr Lombardi has a background of someone who, since he was a young man, has been very responsible and very hard working.’
She said he had had a ‘huge maturity increase’ after spending nearly six months in prison.
There was no visible reaction from the public gallery, where three members of Lombardi’s family were also sitting when yesterday’s not-guilty verdict to assault was announced.