Almost three years after his brutal death, the long fight for justice for the family of Michael McIlveen has finally reached its conclusion.

In a vicious attack which shocked Northern Ireland the schoolboy was beaten with a baseball bat and kicked around 60 times in an alley in Ballymena in 2006.

Tributes to the 15-year-old were paid at the time by Tony Blair in the House of Commons and by former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

A book of condolence was opened at the local council headquarters and numerous tributes were paid on internet message boards.

At Michael’s funeral, mourners were told by the Bishop of Down and Connor, the Most Reverend Patrick Walsh, how Michael had joined the “long, sad litany of those murdered by sectarian hatred”.

In the weeks and months which followed Michael’s death, tensions in Ballymena were at a marked high.

There were further incidents of attacks on young people in the town and police were forced to keep rival gangs apart at a Christmas lights switch-on.

A makeshift shrine to Michael was also paint bombed, while a video featuring offensive remarks about his death was reported to be circulating on mobile phones.

Michael had been on an evening out when he was chased and beaten in an alleyway in Ballymena.

The teenager died in hospital from head injuries a day after the attack.

For his family, his death was followed by a very painful process to try and bring those responsible to justice.

That those arrested in the days following his death were themselves young people only served to deepen the shock which permeated Ballymena and Northern Ireland as a whole.

After a wait of more than two years the trial began in the autumn of 2008.

For seven weeks, Michael’s family heard graphic details of his final hours, of the attempts to revive him and the injuries which led to his death.

There was a dramatic twist during the trial when one of the accused, 20-year-old Mervyn Wilson Moon, pleaded guilty to his involvement in the murder.

But the family’s anguish was to continue when the trial was halted in October, after hearing evidence from more than 40 witnesses.

At the time the judge told the court that it was “as a result of certain matters which have arisen”.

The second trial began a few weeks later — and once again the family had to sit through prolonged, detailed, and very painful accounts of how their beloved son and brother had died.

As well as Moon, three other men Jeff Colin Lewis (19), Christopher Francis Kerr (22) and Aaron Cavana Wallace (20) were convicted of his murder.

In a video-taped police interview, which was played to the court during trial, Michael’s friend who was with him when he was attacked, said Moon was the one who “nailed him with a baseball bat”.

The court heard that Lewis was kicking him “the hardest,” while shouting sectarian abuse.

The witness also said that Kerr kicked Michael “about 20, 25 times” while Wallace “kicked him about ten times”.

Last month defence lawyers for the killers apologised to the McIlveen family as they made their pleas of mitigation to Mr Justice Treacy.