Alfie Peak can barely talk and needs to use a keypad to communicate, his family says
Four men have been convicted over an attack on a young father outside a fast food outlet that left him with "catastrophic" brain damage.
Alfie Peak, then 25, was set upon on Sea Road, Bexhill on 27 July 2013 after a row inside the USA Fried Chicken takeaway spilled out on to the street.
Witnesses told Sussex Police he had been repeatedly kicked in the head.
Zack Dangerfield, Thomas Unwin, John Panice and Stephen Luck have all been found guilty of GBH with intent.
They will be sentenced at Hove Crown Court on Thursday.
Dangerfield, 25, of Preston Road, Bexhill, and Unwin, 25, of High Street, Ripley in Derbyshire, returned to the scene after the attack to laugh as Mr Peak was being treated, police said.
Dangerfield was arrested later that day and Unwin detained three days later.
Panice, 26, of Wartlington Drive, Bexhill, and Luck, 26, of Kinscott Close, Bexhill, were named by Dangerfield and arrested shortly afterwards.
Left to right: John Panice, Thomas Unwin, Stephen Luck and Zack Dangerfield
Mr Peak with his partner Tanya
His daughter Summa said: "My dad did nothing wrong"
Det Con Paul Semple said: "This was a truly brutal attack which has left a young man with permanent brain damage and confined to a wheelchair.
"His life will never be the same again as a result."
After the verdicts, Mr Peak's family said: "Alfie will never get to do the things he used to do like boxing or swimming or cooking dinner. Alfie's living a life sentence in his own body."
Mr Peak's daughter Summa, 12, said: "It's not very nice and very unfair knowing my dad did nothing wrong to be like this, in a wheelchair and unable to talk.
"It's really sad that he can't do the things he used to be able to do with me."
- Published4 March 2014
