The man who attacked an Italian student in 1999, leaving him paralysed, has been given an eight-and-half year jail sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today.
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James Osbourne (31), formerly from Forth Road, East Wall, and now from Ardilaune, Dublin 3, pleaded guilty yesterday to assault charges that left the-then 17-year-old with a fractured skull.
In a statement read out to the court today, 19-year-old Mr Guido Nasi said he has "lost the most beautiful years of my life. This is a nightmare from which I try to wake myself".
Mr Nasi said at the time of the attack, he was a student in Turin and was interested in politics and astronomy. Now, he said, he could only move the left side of his body and had partial sight in his right eye.
However, Mr Nasi said he had now found peace and happiness and thanked the people of Ireland for their prayers and financial support.
In handing down the sentence Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne said "it is hard to imagine or contemplate a more serious offence of this nature" bar one that would lead to death.
Judge Dunne said she had "absolutely no doubt of the genuine remorse expressed over and over again" by Mr Osbourne. "I accept as genuine ... that he (Osbourne) would if he could, change places with Mr Nasi", she said.
But said she had to take "the calamitous effect" of the attack into account. Mr Nasi is the only child of his single-parent mother.
Counsel for Osbourne, was refused leave to appeal the sentence.
Osbourne admitted "recklessly causing serious harm" to Mr Nasi, who was studying English in Dublin at the time, when he smashed a beer bottle on his head in Fairview Park.
The attack happened when Mr Nasi chased a youth after his wallet had been stolen. He was left almost completely paralysed by the assault.
Judge Dunne rejected a defence submission that the incident was an accident arising out of Mr Osbourne’s intention to "render assistance". However, she said she understood from eye witness accounts that the circumstances surrounding the assault were confusing.
Judge Dunne said she could accept that Mr Osbourne, an alcoholic who was drunk at the time, could have thought 6"1’ Mr Nasi, who was detaining the thief, was bullying the considerably shorter man.
But she said there was no justification for Mr Osbourne’s admission that he followed Mr Nasi before hitting him with the beer bottle. Mr Nasi sustained a damaged sub-arterial vein in the attack, which led to his serious injuries.
Yesterday, Mr Michael O’Higgins SC, for the defence, said Osbourne "deeply regretted the terrible, catastrophic injuries inflicted to Mr Nasi".