Youths convicted of killing Goth

Two drunken youths who acted like "wild animals" in a brutal attack on a Goth woman because of the way she looked have been convicted of murder.

Ryan Herbert, 16, and Brendan Harris, 15, savagely kicked and stamped Sophie Lancaster to death as she begged them to stop beating her boyfriend. The 20-year-old's pleas as she cradled Robert Maltby in her arms went unheeded as Harris delivered a flying kick to her head and Herbert volley-kicked her in the face "like a ball in flight" during the assault in a park in Bacup, Lancashire.

Neither of the defendants knew their victims and the only motive was that they simply looked different to them, Preston Crown Court heard.

Miss Lancaster, a gap-year student, died from serious head injuries two weeks after the attack in Stubbylee Park in the early hours of August 11 last year. Her boyfriend, art student Robert Maltby, 21, also a Goth, survived but suffered memory loss and has no recollection of the attack.

Mr Maltby, who did not attend court, said he had lost his "entire world" and wished he had been kicked to death instead so his girlfriend could have been spared.

A jury of nine men and three women took just two hours to unanimously find Harris guilty of murder. Harris, of Spring Terrace, Bacup, had denied the murder charge but pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Maltby after drinking two litres of cider, a bottle of Stella Artois lager and "quite a lot of" peach schnapps.

Herbert, of Rossendale Crescent, Bacup, who had also been drinking alcohol throughout the night, admitted murdering Miss Lancaster before he was due to go on trial. He also pleaded guilty to assaulting her boyfriend.

Three other youths, two aged 17 and one 16, who cannot be named for legal reasons, earlier pleaded guilty to assaulting Mr Maltby. Charges of murdering Miss Lancaster against them were dropped.

Outside court, Miss Lancaster's mother, Sylvia, 52, who works with young offenders in her job at youth advisory care service Connexions, said society needed to make changes to prevent similar deaths.

She said: "Sophie was a thoughtful, sensitive individual and she would not have wanted her death to have been in vain. I hope therefore that, as a society, we can use what has happened to reflect on where we are going and what changes we need to make to prevent others suffering in this way."