Mum's plea to justice system after Goth's death

Brutal: Sophie Lancaster was killed as she tried to protect her boyfriend from youths

The mother of a woman who was brutally murdered because she was dressed like a Goth is battling for legal definition for crimes against “sub cultures”.

Sylvia Lancaster’s daughter, Sophie, was kicked to death and stamped on in a park in Bacup in August 2007.

Mrs Lancaster has met with Justice Secretary Jack Straw to discuss possible reclassification of offences, to prompt defined sentencing guidelines for similar prejudicial attacks.

Sophie’s killers first attacked her boyfriend, Robert Maltby, and turned on her when she pleaded with them to stop. She was so badly beaten that paramedics could not tell what sex she was.

Sophie and her boyfriend lived in Rochdale before renting a flat together in Bacup just weeks before her death.

Speaking to Rochdale Online News, Sylvia Lancaster said how she hopes to get the law “widened”

“Judges can use hate crime at their discretion, and that’s what they did at Robert and Sophie’s trial.

“But what we are hoping for is to have this legislation widened, with some of it specifically focusing on sub cultures.

“From this we can gather better statistics, and hopefully have stricter sentencing guidelines for anything like this that happens in the future.

She added: “I have been so busy campaigning but it is important to me to do this”.

Jack Straw acknowledged Mrs Lancaster’s concerns, but has so far said there is not a need for “working definitions”.