Teenagers guilty of Goth's murder

TWO drunken youths who acted like "wild animals" in an attack on a woman because of the way she looked were yesterday 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, as Goths, they simply looked different, 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 11 August last year.

Mr Maltby, 21, an art student, survived, but suffered memory loss and has no recollection of the attack.

Mr Maltby, who did not attend court, said yesterday 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 find Harris unanimously guilty of murder.

Harris 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, 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.

Outside court, Miss Lancaster's mother, Sylvia, 52, who works with young offenders in her job at the 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."

The gang, described in court by the prosecutor, Michael Shorrock, QC, as "acting like a pack of wild animals", punched, jumped and stamped on Mr Maltby's head until he was unconscious.

When paramedics arrived and found the couple lying side by side covered in blood, they could not tell what sex either was, such was the severity of the injuries. The pattern of some footwear was still on Miss Lancaster's head.

Both fell into comas, but Miss Lancaster never regained consciousness and died in hospital 13 days later.

Harris told police that he did not know why he punched Mr Maltby and was just "drunk and showing off".

Giving evidence, he said he stood aside as up to four youths waded into Mr Maltby and then watched the attack on Miss Lancaster by Herbert.

Sentencing was set for 28 April, along with the three other youths who were remanded in custody at the start of the trial.