Four cleared of assault plot

Four people have been cleared of plotting a nightclub assault that left a 40-year-old man with irreparable brain damage.

Brothers Steven Magee, 21, and Mark Magee, 19, James Lafferty, 45, and his brother Arthur Lafferty, 47, all from Corby, Northamptonshire, walked free from Leicester Crown Court on Thursday.

They were found not guilty of organising an attack on Frank Gillespie.

A gang armed with baseball bats and knives ambushed Mr Gillespie outside the Madison's venue in Corby in May last year.

They left him with injuries one paramedic described as the worst he had ever seen.

Low survival chances

More than one year after the attack, the Celtic supporter is still in a permanent vegetative state in hospital.

Doctors rate his chances of surviving more than 10 years as virtually nil.

All four men were cleared of conspiracy to cause Mr Gillespie grievous bodily harm with intent and an alternative charge of conspiracy to assault the father-of-one.

Following the unanimous verdict the Magees, who live in Dorking Walk; James Lafferty, of Bourne Close, Great Oakley, and Arthur Lafferty, of York Road, were discharged.

Separate charges

The jury has yet to give their verdicts on four other people from the former steel town accused of the same offences.

They are the Magees' mother, Jacqueline, 42, also of Dorking Walk; Anne McGrath, 48, and her husband James McGrath, 51, of Halifax Square, and Scott Martin, 30, of Lincoln Way.

Jacqueline Magee is also facing a separate assault charge against Mr Gillespie's girlfriend.

The McGraths' 25-year-old son, also James, and of the same address, and their nephew, Matthew, 19, of Handcross Court, have already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm with intent.

'Long-running feud'

Charges against Jacqueline Magee's husband, Edward Magee, 42, were dropped because he was suffering from terminal cancer.

He died last Sunday and none of the Magees were in court on Thursday because of the funeral, which is taking place on Friday.

The court has heard the attack was part of a long-running feud between Mr Gillespie and the families involving violence and serious criminal accusations.

Judge Charles Wide QC ruled earlier in the trial that the original conspiracy to murder charge against all the defendants be dropped due to insufficient evidence of intent to kill.

The case was adjourned until Friday.