New agony for Liam Neeson as his nephew dies 5 years after fall
LIAM NEESON was last night mourning his nephew, who has died from severe head injuries he suffered five years ago when he fell from the top of a phone box.
Ronan Sexton, 35, died at home with his family at his bedside having never fully recovered from the accident.
the keen musician had been out with friends when he climbed on to the phone box on the Brighton seafront as a dare at 4am. But he then fell more than 20 feet into a concrete subway.
Following the accident near the town’s famous pier in the early hours of June 22, 2014, Mr Sexton was taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in a critical condition, then transferred to Hurstwood Park Hospital in Haywards Heath, West Sussex.
His death is the latest tragedy to affect the family after Hollywood star neeson lost his wife natasha Richardson following a skiing accident in March 2009.
the 45-year-old actress died in hospital in new York two days after hitting her head in a fall at a ski resort in Canada.
Miss Richardson waved away paramedics who offered to help her immediately after the fall and then walked back to her hotel. But she later felt unwell and was taken to hospital in Montreal and then to new York.
She died from a build-up of blood between the brain and the skull putting pressure on the brain tissue, known as an epidural haematoma, caused by the impact to her head.
Mr Sexton, of Cushendall in County antrim, northern ireland, was the youngest of six children of neeson’s sister Bernadette, who lost her partner Harry two years ago. in recent years 66-year- old neeson has regularly visited his family in northern ireland, and he was understood to be very close to his late nephew.
at the time of Mr Sexton’s accident in 2014 his family issued a statement thanking hospital staff, and also the public for their outpouring of ‘love, support, prayers and good wishes for Ronan’.
neeson – star of hits including Schindler’s list, Michael Collins and love actually – married Miss Richardson, daughter of actress vanessa Redgrave and director tony Richardson, in 1994. they had two children together, sons now aged 23 and 22.
in an interview two years ago neeson told how he had concentrated on work to cope with the loss of his wife.
He said: ‘i’m not good without work. [at work] i just don’t wallow too much. and i just didn’t want to – especially for my boys – seem to be wallowing in sadness or depression.’ He added: ‘it hits you like a wave. You just get this profound feeling of instability … the earth isn’t stable any more and then it passes and it becomes more infrequent, but i still get it sometimes.
‘[Her] death was never real. it still kind of isn’t. there are periods now in our new York residence when i hear the door opening, especially the first couple of years … any time i hear that door opening i still think i’m going to hear her.’