BBC News
A 16-year-old boy has admitted kicking a woman to death in a Lancashire park.
Sophie Lancaster, 20, and boyfriend Robert Maltby, 21, were in Stubby Lee Park in Bacup, Lancashire, when they were attacked on 11 August 2007.
At Preston Crown Court a youth, who cannot legally be named, admitted murder, and attacking Mr Maltby.
A 15-year-old youth is due to stand trial for the murder - he denies the charge but admits causing grevious bodily harm with intent.
Murder charges against three other youths - two aged 17 and one aged 16 - were withdrawn.
None of the youths can be named because of their age.
Remanded in custody
The three youths who had the murder charge withdrawn were remanded in custody by Judge Anthony Russell QC, Recorder of Preston, after admitting GBH.
They will be sentenced after the conclusion of the murder trial of the 15-year-old defendant.
A jury is due to be sworn in and a trial, scheduled to last three weeks, is expected to start on Wednesday. Miss Lancaster died two weeks after the incident. She was in a coma after suffering head injuries and never regained consciousness.
Mr Maltby, an art student, also fell into a coma, but recovered and has since left hospital.
The beginning of the trial saw a renewed interest with articles, in The Times, Scotsman, Guardian, Telegraph, Mirror, Mail, Metro, The Sun, BBC, Sky News and ITN plus other sources. However none of articles picked up on the wider implications of the crime many many not mentioning the role of prejudice in the attack.
Only the Lancashire Evening Telegraph article below mentioned the S.O.P.H.I.E. campaign. Why?? Some online articles do not even mention the fact that both people attacked were goths though the BBC did in their broadcast.
Will the media match the amount of time it spent on the case of goth Bus prejudice with the same amount on this case of murder and GBH? In the next few weeks we will see.
"Sophie's death prompted an out-pouring of grief from friends and family in East Lancashire.
Her mother Sylvia, from Bacup, has established SOPHIE (Stamp Out Prejudice, Hatred and Intolerance Everywhere) to call for greater under-standing for marginalised sections of society."Sophie Lancaster murder trial due to startThis Is Lancashire, UK -
Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom -
The 16-year-old, who cannot be named because of his age, admitted the murder of Sophie Lancaster and the attack on her boyfriend, Robert Maltby, 21. ...
The Sun proclaimed Goth Killer Guilty.
Boy, 16, pleads guilty to beating to death female college student ...
Daily Mail - Sophie Lancaster: a 16-year-old pleaded guilty today to her murder. Miss Lancaster and Mr Maltby were beaten up in a vicious assault in Stubbylee Park, .
Lad guilty of Goth's kill horror
Mirror.co.uk, UK -
A schoolboy faces an unlimited jail sentence after admitting murdering a Goth student and assaulting her boyfriend. The 16-year-old pleaded guilty yesterday ...,
3 comments:
i'am so outraged by this every day i have followed sophie's story and each day it brings me to tears she was a beautiful girl who didn't deserve to die i swear if i could get my hands on those narrow minded thugs and their excuse for parents justice would definately be served
wishing you all the best lara brand xxx
long live sophie
hen i heard about this case, i was sitting with my boyfriend, both of us almost burst into tears watching the news report. neither of them deserved what they got. they both seemed like the lovliest people.
long live Sophie. i didnt know her but ill never forget.
Lauren-Jade Rodriguez
After reading the news on the internet in Dubai, i was apsolutly disgusted by this. It's so typical of the U.K to have these problems brought on by drunk thugs and god sake there 15 to 17 years old. What the fuck at the parents doing. I'm speechless by there actions makes me sick to say i come from that Island.
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