Sophie Lancaster was murdered aged 20 in 2007 by a number of teenage boys who attacked her and her boyfriend Robert Maltby, then 21, while they walked through Stubbylee Park, Lancashire, on August 11.
Police believe the attack was linked to the couple wearing gothic clothes.
Witnesses claimed the attackers celebrated what they had done, boasting to friends over the phone: ‘There’s two moshers nearly dead up – you wanna see them – they’re a right mess.’
Sophie went into a coma and died 13 days after the attack due to severe head injuries. She was placed on life support, which hospital staff terminated after determining she would never regain consciousness.
Five teenage boys, aged 15-to-17, were arrested, of which two were convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, while the remainder were jailed for grievous bodily harm.
Sophie Lancaster was murdered aged 20 in 2007 by a number of teenage boys who attacked her and her boyfriend. Police believe this was due to their gothic clothes
‘They were kicking her in the head’
A 15-year-old witness told police: ‘They were running over and just kicking her in the head, and jumping up and down on her head.’
Police said it was ‘a sustained attack during the course of which the pair received serious head injuries and their faces were so swollen we could not ascertain which one was female and which one was male’.
Robert also fell into a coma before gradually recovering. He has no memory of the attack.
Attacked ‘because they looked and dressed differently’
As the trial against the accused opened on March 10 2008, the prosecution told the hearing: ‘Sophie and Robert were singled out not for anything they had said or done, but because they looked and dressed differently.’
Sophie’s mother, who later founded the Sophie Lancaster Foundation, said: ‘The thing that makes me most angry is that it is seen as an isolated incident, maybe the seriousness of what happened to Sophie is isolated, but attacks are far from isolated.
‘Just because you follow a different culture you are targeted; you are seen as easy pickings.’
The Sophie Lancaster Foundation aims to challenge prejudice towards people from alternative subcultures and campaigns to have the UK Hate Crime legislation extended to include such individuals.
Sophie went into a coma and died 13 days after the attack due to severe head injuries