MICHAEL Rogers was turning his life around. He had come to Oxfordshire to get clean from drug addiction and ended up an ambassador for the Ley centre in Yarnton before going to work at the News Cafe in the centre of Oxford.

He had been clean of drugs for two years. Things were looking up.

Then a quiet night in a Kidlington pub and devastation.

An unprovoked attack that damaged his brain and the 31-year-old now has to breathe through a ventilator and feed through a tube.

Some make a 90 per cent recovery in their first year, not so for Michael. The prognosis is not good.

Life is set to be very different.

For his attacker, Logan Usher, jail for admitting grievous bodily harm. Prison, for a mere 30 months. And he’ll be out sooner.

Compare the two and you get a pretty good impression of the damage Usher has done. The disparity between the two sentences is shocking.

What is remarkable about this story is the reaction of Michael’s parents. Brave and reflective.

“It’s not enough justice for what he’s gone through, but it’s enough justice for what the judge could pass,” said dad Grahame Rogers.

No outburst. No bile vented. Just sorrow for what has happened and an eagerness to get the message across: It’s not worth it.

We wonder how many other pub fights leave such a shocking impact.