thommo
28th March, 2008, 03:07 AM
A 15-YEAR-OLD boy was today convicted of kicking and stamping to death a young woman in a park because she was dressed as a Goth.
Brendan Harris attacked Sophie Lancaster, 20, as she begged him and four other youths to stop beating her boyfriend, art student Robert Maltby.
Preston Crown Court heard the assault was totally unprovoked and the two victims from Bacup, Lancashire, were singled out because they looked different to their attackers.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44519000/jpg/_44519294_harrisandherbert203.jpg
chav scum
Miss Lancaster, a gap year student, died from serious head injuries two weeks after the attack in Stubbylee Park, Bacup, in the early hours of August 11 last year, while Mr Maltby, also a Goth, survived.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44077000/jpg/_44077318_sophieb.jpg
A jury of nine men and three women found Harris guilty of murder within hours of retiring.
After the verdict trial judge Anthony Russell QC lifted an order banning identification of Harris and Ryan Herbert, 16, who had pleaded guilty to Miss Lancaster’s 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.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44486000/jpg/_44486793_robmatltby203_pa.jpg
Herbert admitted murdering Miss Lancaster before he was also due to go on trial.
He also pleaded guilty to assaulting her boyfriend.
Outside court, Sophie’s mother, Sylvia, 52, said: “I stand outside this house of justice today, not as Sophie’s mother, but as her voice. Her voice that was cruelly silenced in a single mindless act.
“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.
'Just not fair'
Speaking after the verdict, Mr Maltby said he felt he had lost his “entire world” and wished the gang had killed him instead.
Mr Maltby said the couple had planned to get married and have children and that it was “just not fair” that everything they had worked for had been taken away from them.
“She was my entire world,” he said. “I’m not ashamed to say that.
“Everything I was doing outside being around Sophie was really just to make it so we could have a decent life together, and just when we have tried that hard, we have put in so much effort, and then some child comes along and decides to ruin it all for you, it is just not fair.”
Mr Maltby said he had first met Sophie through a friend of a friend and they had clicked when they realised they shared a love of an obscure German band.
The pair also dressed similarly, he said, adding: “From speaking to her it just seemed like I was speaking to a smaller version of myself.
“She was very, very warm. Just wanted to make friends with everyone really, and that might have had something to do with why we started going out and sadly might have had something to do with what happened the night we were attacked.”
The couple had been on a night out when they met some people at a petrol station in Bacup.
They then moved on to a nearby park where they were brutally attacked.
Mr Maltby was set upon first, before Sophie was targeted as she cradled him and called for help.
He said: “Really what they were trying to do was humiliate us, and beside the obvious things that I am annoyed at, that is what I am annoyed about the most.
“It seems to display just arrogance and it is just something I am not familiar with.
“If they had just hit me a couple of times, like when I have hit the ground they have gone, ’This is it, we are just going to leave’, I would not have been happy with it but I could have accepted it.
“I could even have accepted if what had happened to me had been even worse, if God forbid if I might not have survived it but Sophie was never attacked again.
“I could accept that, but you do not do that to a young girl. You do not do that to anyone but, there’s certain codes you have to live by as a man and the number one is you do not beat up girls and I just do not understand it.”
As for what should happen to the attackers, he said: “I want them to never stop suffering for what they have done.
"I want it to be a life-long thing and I do not even really think I can say what I really want to happen to them."
Sniggering
Detective Superintendent Mick Gradwell, Senior Investigating Officer at Lancashire Police, said it was one of the most violent murders he had come across in his lengthy career.
And he added that he was appalled by the behaviour of some of the defendant's parents.
“The general attitude of the defendants’ parents during the whole process has been appalling.
“Sophie’s mother also commented to us that the three defendants who were convicted of assaulting Robert Maltby were sniggering at her outside court before the start of the trial,” he said.
Brendan Harris attacked Sophie Lancaster, 20, as she begged him and four other youths to stop beating her boyfriend, art student Robert Maltby.
Preston Crown Court heard the assault was totally unprovoked and the two victims from Bacup, Lancashire, were singled out because they looked different to their attackers.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44519000/jpg/_44519294_harrisandherbert203.jpg
chav scum
Miss Lancaster, a gap year student, died from serious head injuries two weeks after the attack in Stubbylee Park, Bacup, in the early hours of August 11 last year, while Mr Maltby, also a Goth, survived.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44077000/jpg/_44077318_sophieb.jpg
A jury of nine men and three women found Harris guilty of murder within hours of retiring.
After the verdict trial judge Anthony Russell QC lifted an order banning identification of Harris and Ryan Herbert, 16, who had pleaded guilty to Miss Lancaster’s 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.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44486000/jpg/_44486793_robmatltby203_pa.jpg
Herbert admitted murdering Miss Lancaster before he was also due to go on trial.
He also pleaded guilty to assaulting her boyfriend.
Outside court, Sophie’s mother, Sylvia, 52, said: “I stand outside this house of justice today, not as Sophie’s mother, but as her voice. Her voice that was cruelly silenced in a single mindless act.
“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.
'Just not fair'
Speaking after the verdict, Mr Maltby said he felt he had lost his “entire world” and wished the gang had killed him instead.
Mr Maltby said the couple had planned to get married and have children and that it was “just not fair” that everything they had worked for had been taken away from them.
“She was my entire world,” he said. “I’m not ashamed to say that.
“Everything I was doing outside being around Sophie was really just to make it so we could have a decent life together, and just when we have tried that hard, we have put in so much effort, and then some child comes along and decides to ruin it all for you, it is just not fair.”
Mr Maltby said he had first met Sophie through a friend of a friend and they had clicked when they realised they shared a love of an obscure German band.
The pair also dressed similarly, he said, adding: “From speaking to her it just seemed like I was speaking to a smaller version of myself.
“She was very, very warm. Just wanted to make friends with everyone really, and that might have had something to do with why we started going out and sadly might have had something to do with what happened the night we were attacked.”
The couple had been on a night out when they met some people at a petrol station in Bacup.
They then moved on to a nearby park where they were brutally attacked.
Mr Maltby was set upon first, before Sophie was targeted as she cradled him and called for help.
He said: “Really what they were trying to do was humiliate us, and beside the obvious things that I am annoyed at, that is what I am annoyed about the most.
“It seems to display just arrogance and it is just something I am not familiar with.
“If they had just hit me a couple of times, like when I have hit the ground they have gone, ’This is it, we are just going to leave’, I would not have been happy with it but I could have accepted it.
“I could even have accepted if what had happened to me had been even worse, if God forbid if I might not have survived it but Sophie was never attacked again.
“I could accept that, but you do not do that to a young girl. You do not do that to anyone but, there’s certain codes you have to live by as a man and the number one is you do not beat up girls and I just do not understand it.”
As for what should happen to the attackers, he said: “I want them to never stop suffering for what they have done.
"I want it to be a life-long thing and I do not even really think I can say what I really want to happen to them."
Sniggering
Detective Superintendent Mick Gradwell, Senior Investigating Officer at Lancashire Police, said it was one of the most violent murders he had come across in his lengthy career.
And he added that he was appalled by the behaviour of some of the defendant's parents.
“The general attitude of the defendants’ parents during the whole process has been appalling.
“Sophie’s mother also commented to us that the three defendants who were convicted of assaulting Robert Maltby were sniggering at her outside court before the start of the trial,” he said.