A law graduate has been sentenced to five years in prison with 18 months suspended for setting fire to a medical student in a Galway city nightclub.

Matthew Sheridan from Cabinteely in Dublin was attending a Halloween fancy dress party at the Halo nightclub in Galway in 2012.

Brian Keane - from Grange, Templemore Road in Thurles - came up behind him on the dancefloor, took out a lighter and set fire to Mr Sheridan's costume.

No apparent reason was given for this.

Mr Sheridan gave a harrowing victim impact statement yesterday, saying: "I was tortured because he wanted me to be so, he changed my life forever".

"He literally burnt me to the bone".

Journalist at the Daily Mail Online, Padraig Prendergast, was in the nightclub that night.

He told Newstalk Lunchtime what happened.