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.
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.
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.
Herbert admitted murdering Miss Lancaster before he was also due to go on trial.
He also pleaded guilty to assaulting her boyfriend.

__________________