Two men, including one from Wallasey, have been cleared of killing a vulnerable man after he was subjected to a brutal attack and hit up to 20 times in his home.
Neil Woolford was assaulted and hit over the head with a wooden pole as his flat was ransacked, and he died 15 years later.
Karl Davidson, 38, from Union Street, Wallasey, Wirral, and Carl Cumberbatch, 33, who was 15 at the time of the incident, have been standing trial.
On Friday, they were both cleared of manslaughter.
Davidson had already pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm upon Mr Woolford in June 2004 at Inner London Crown Court.
Prosecutor John Price, QC, said on that day he was found - on August 24, 2003 - Mr Woolford was in an alleyway down the side of the Silver Buckle pub in Camberwell Green, south-east London, where he appeared to be fitting, before he staggered to the pavement and collapsed.
He was taken to King's College Hospital where he was found to have suffered a catastrophic bleed on the brain, which in turn caused massive brain damage.
The victim was in a coma for 15 years having been unconscious since August 27, 2003, in what was described as a "permanent vegetative state."
The Old Bailey heard pathologist Dr Deryk James commented in 2018 that the immediate cause of death was bronchopneumonia, a type of pneumonia that causes inflammation and can restrict the airways, but that he said he was "in no doubt that Mr Woolford's death is a direct consequence of the event causing his subdural haematoma and collapse back in 2003".
Mr Woolford died aged 49 on March 10, 2018, following a brain injury allegedly caused as a result of an attack on August 24, 2003.
Mr Price said three days before he collapsed, Mr Woolford, then aged 35, was "very seriously beaten up, the focus of the attack upon him being his head and face" at his flat in Peckham, south-east London.
Mr Woolford had been beaten after he tried to stop intruders walking out of his flat with his CD player, the court heard.
Mr Price said the victim told police he was hit about 20 times and hit on the head with a wooden pole.
He told the court: "By the end of the attack, he said his head felt very sore and there was blood pouring from his face."
Cumberbatch, of Druid Street, Bermondsey, south-east London, has also previously pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm upon Mr Woolford.
The court heard Davidson was a "very vulnerable isolated man" and was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Mr Price said in the wake of the attack in August 2003, Mr Woolford told police that he "had become a victim of harassment and bullying".
"Local youths would frequently visit him in his flat, and this may not always have been welcome to him," Mr Price told members of the jury.
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An Old Bailey jury deliberated for seven-and-a-half hours to find the pair not guilty of the charge.
A key issue for the jury to consider was whether it was "more likely than not" that the assault on August 24 did not cause the brain injury identified three days later.
