Mark Miller, 23, a student at Swansea University, was attacked in the Cwmrhydyceirw part of the town as he walked home from his girlfriend Emma Goodchild's house – just hours after the pair had been for a scan on their unborn baby.

Georgie Rees, aged 17, of Morfydd Street, Morriston, Alexander Hill, aged 16, of Amroth Court, Penlan, and Joshua Lewis, aged 15, of Cwmrhydyceirw, Morriston, were sentenced to a total of 18 years in a young offenders' institution for the attack which left Mark in intensive care for 10 days and hospitalised for a total of two and a half months.

Today Mark, who is visually impaired, admitted he was lucky to be alive, claiming he recalled nothing of the incident on April 30.

"I've got no memory of it whatsoever – I was walking along in Swansea and the next thing I knew I was waking up in Wrexham Maelor," he said.

Mark spent 10 days in intensive care at Swansea's Morriston Hospital and was eventually transferred to the Maelor, to be closer to mother Maureen and father Mick, on May 21.

However, he has no recollection of any events between April 30 and mid-June.

He was eventually transferred to Clatterbridge Hospital in Wirral before finally being discharged on July 15.

Mark, a mathematics student, is currently living with pregnant girlfriend Emma, who is due to give birth in November, at her home after returning to Swansea this week. He is due to meet university lecturers in the next few days to discover whether he will be awarded a degree in absentia.

During his terrifying ordeal, the three youths punched Mark to the head and stomach, knocking him to the ground.

Mark, who grew up in the Rhosddu and Garden Village areas of Wrexham, covered his head, screaming for help, as his face, back, legs and stomach were then repeatedly stamped on.

Rees seized his wallet and the three youths ran off, leaving him face-down on the ground unconscious.

A passer-by who raised the alarm at 6.50pm saw a footprint on the unconscious student's back.

Rees, Hill and Lewis then went to a nearby playing field, where they discarded the wallet and bragged to other teenagers about having mugged someone.

The court heard that Mark was "deeply unconscious" when taken to hospital.

Surgeons found serious bruising to his brain and he was in intensive care for 10 days. He developed pneumonia from his condition, along with a temporary form of right-sided paralysis and he may have impaired mental abilities for life.

Speaking from Swansea Mark, a former pupil of The Groves, in Rhosddu, said: "I'm at my girlfriend's house now and I can see the alleyway where I was attacked.

"I've just got no memory of it.