Goth attackers appeal against terms

2:25pm Tuesday 7th October 2008

A gang of teenagers who savagely attacked a young couple for being Goths are appealing against their sentences.

Gap-year student Sophie Lancaster, 20, was killed by Brendan Harris, 15, and Ryan Herbert, 16, by repeated stamps and kicks to her head as she lay defenceless.

She was attacked by the pair in a park as she cradled her injured 21-year-old boyfriend, Robert Maltby.

Harris, Herbert, brothers Joseph and Danny Hulme, 17 and 16, and Daniel Mallet, 17, had moments earlier stamped and kicked art student Mr Maltby into unconsciousness as Miss Lancaster tried to save him.

Miss Lancaster died in hospital 13 days later. Robert survived, but is mentally and physically scarred, after the attack in Bacup, Lancashire, in August 2007.

In April this year Harris, who was convicted of Miss Lancaster's murder after a trial, was sentenced to life, with a minimum term of 18 years before he can apply for parole.

Herbert, who pleaded guilty to murder, was also sentenced to life, with a minimum of 16 years and three months.

The pair, along with the three others, were also given indeterminate sentences for public protection, after all five pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm with intent in relation to the attack on Mr Maltby.

Both Hulme brothers were ordered to serve a minimum of five years and 10 months, and Mallett four years four months. Judge Anthony Russell QC, sitting at Preston Crown Court, described the attacks as "feral thuggery".

The sentence appeals will be heard at the Court of Appeal in London today by three judges.

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