Sophie Lancaster grave (26th November 1986 to 24th August 2007)

On 11^th August 2007 Sophie and her boyfriend Robert were strolling through Stubbylee Park in Bacup in Lancashire. Five teenage boys set about attacking them and Sophia was kicked in the head so many times she fell into a coma and died thirteen days later. This became a high-profile media story as the couple were attacked for their gothic fashion. Plays, films, art and books have covered the issues surrounding the murder. Here I am by her grave at the top of Whitworth cemetery in Lancashire.

At the time Sophie was on a gap year and planned to attend college to do an English degree. She’d been dating her boyfriend Robert Maltby for around three years. Though they dressed like goths they were pretty normal people. When they were attacked for their odd looks they were at the skate park area of Stubbylee Park, Bacup. About an hour passed midnight they decided to walk home and passed a gang of teenagers at the entrance to the park. The group followed them and knocked Robert unconscious. Sophie was cradling Robert’s head in her lap when the mob knocked her to the soil and jumped up and down many times on her head. A witnessed called the emergency services. Shocked medics could not tell the couple apart as their faces were bloated like cartoon characters. They were rushed to Rochdale Infirmary. Robert eventually emerged from a coma but his memory was messed up and he couldn’t recall the attack. Sophie was moved Salford Royal Hospital which specialises in head injuries. The damage to her brain was so severe that her life support was cut off days later.

All the attackers were sent to prison. Two lads - Ryan Herbert and Brendon Harris - were convicted of murder and the others for grievous bodily harm (GBH). A memorial fund was established in Lancaster's name, and numerous events have paid tribute to her locally, nationally and internationally.

Her grave lies at the top of the cemetery in a section above the main hub of the graves in a sort of overflow section (easy to miss.) I went to have a look and had painted a pebble to add to the miscellaneous stuff by the headstone. How many lives were changed, ruined, shortened in the early hours of 11th August? All the attackers and the two murderers have since been released from prison. The clergy says there are some crimes only God can forgive; this sounds like one of them.

I had a photograph of the headstone but what saddened to find she wasn't the only one in the grave. Sophie's mum lies here too having died suddenly aged 69 of a haemorrhage - only weeks after the murders were released from prison. What unfathomable tragedy lies beneath this bit of grass measuring about seven feet by three feet. If Sophie had stayed in that night mum and daughter wouldn't be here. I did a salute and left.