In the early morning hours of August 11, 2007, Sophie Lancaster and her boyfriend, Robert Maltby, were passing through Stubbylee Park in Lancashire, UK, when they were attacked by a group of teenage boys who beat the couple savagely, resulting in Lancaster’s death two weeks later. The next day, police arrested two of the teenagers responsible for the attack, who told authorities they’d attacked the young couple for no other reason than they were dressed like “Goths.”

The tragic assault on the young couple was shocking in and of itself, but the murder was made exponentially more shocking by the ages of the killers and the ostensibly terroristic motive, raising questions about the state of youth culture in the United Kingdom.

thank you to the best of the best, David White for research assistance

References

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Bunyan, Nigel. 2008. "Why did parents let Goth's killers roam the streets?" Daily Telegraph, March 28.

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Rossendale Free Press. 2007. "Young couple fighting for their lives after vicious ‘mob attack’." Rossendale Free Press, August 16: https://www.rossendalefreepress.co.uk/news/local-news/young-couple-fighting-lives-after-1709148.

Smyth, Catherine. 2020. Weirdo, Mosher, Freak: The Murder of Sophie Lancaster. Lancashire, UK: Self-published.

Turner, Kate. 2007. "Skatepark youth 'may face murder charge'." This is Lancashire, September 27.

Usborne, Simon. 2017. "Robert Maltby on the murder of his girlfriend Sophie Lancaster." The Guardian, June 15: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/15/robert-maltby-on-the-of-his-girlfriend-sophie-lancaster-the-goth-thing-was-an-oversimplification.

Wainwright, Martin. 2008. "Woman died after drunken gang attacked couple dressed as." The Guardian, March 13.

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