Four men have been found guilty of a brutal attack which left former Sutton United footballer Robbie Hughes fighting for his life.

Curtis Taylor, Daniel Bell, and Sean Branton, from Horley and Joseph Bruckland from Hookwood were convicted of grievous bodily harm following a three day trial in Haraklion on the Greek island of Crete.

George Hollands of Reigate and Benjamin Herdman from Worth were cleared of the charges.

The four men, who had been extradited from the UK for the trial, avoided jail but were handed suspended prison sentences for the attack which put the 31-year-old into a coma.

Robbie Hughes was beaten to within an inch of his life by the four men outside a nightclub in Malia, Greece in June 2008, with doctors saying after the attack he had only 48 hours to live.

Mr Hughes was attacked with a bottle before being kicked and punched by the men, who are all in their early 20s.

After a four-and-a-half-year battle, Mr Hughes' mother Maggie Hughes spoke of her relief at the verdict, which came in at 8pm local time last night (Thursday).

She said: "This is the verdict we have been campaigning for, it's the right result and the whole family are delighted. It's good they didn't go to prison, this gives them a second chance, it's the best outcome."

"Something good had to come out of something so bad."

"If they had gone to jail, then we, as a family, would be thinking all the time they were there if they were going to appeal and when they would be getting out. I don't need that stress. No, this way they get a second chance, they are only young men."

"We have finally got justice, but Robbie has got the life sentence, not them."

Mrs Hughes, speaking after the verdict and before boarding a plane back to England, said she will continue campaigning to help victims of crime abroad.

She said: "We can all now get on with our lives, it will take Robbie a while to come top terms with it, we know we will never get the old Robbie back, but this was the final piece of the jigsaw.

"We had no support from the authorities after this happened, and I don't want other families to go through that same horror, and not knowing where to go, this is why I will continue to campaign."

Mrs Hughes will return to Brussels on Monday to discuss further EU laws which she helped to change earlier this year to ensure families get better support when they are victims of crime abroad.

She said: "I would like to pass what I have learned throughout this whole experience onto other families, and who knows, maybe I will get a job in this field, I want to help change things. It's been a long journey, but we are finally at the end of it, and we have got the best possible outcome."