Sophie Lancaster - a legacy of love and tolerance which never ends
26.11.2023 - 17:01
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A bouquet of red roses have been place at her resting place to mark what would have been her 37th birthday today. Her life was brutally ended just three months short of her 21st birthday.
But the legacy created by her mother still strives to erase prejudice and hatred. Sophie Lancaster was murdered just for being herself.
But it triggered wider public concern about the existence of gang violence in the UK, debate, despair, and disbelief. She was walking home through Stubbylee Park in Bacup, Rossendale, on August 11th 2007 at about 1.15am with her boyfriend when they were taunted by a group of youths attacked for how they looked.
Sophie's boyfriend, Robert Maltby, 21, was knocked unconscious and as she tried to protect him she was kicked and stamped on. She was left in a coma and died 13 days later at Salford Royal Hospital after her mother Sylvia made the decision for her life-support machine to be turned off as she had no hope of survival.
The pair has been targeted in a skate park as they walked wearing heavy boots and goth-style clothing. A court hearing would later be told that "Sophie and Robert were singled out not for anything they had said or done, but because they looked and dressed differently"
Sylvia ensured her daughter did not die in vain. She launched a 15-year high-profile campaign to both highlight hate crime and celebrate alternative subcultures. It spawned The Sophie Lancaster Foundation, dedicated to "promoting tolerance and acceptance for others". Her message was delivered to both senior politicians and schoolchildren.
Sophie had attended Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School and Haslingden High. She planned to attend Accrington and Rossendale College to study English. TV and radio dramas, including
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