EXCLUSIVE: Brendan Harris, who kicked and stamped Sophie Lancaster as she tried to get a gang to stop attacking her boyfriend, and was jailed for her murder is up for parole soon
A thug who kicked and stamped Sophie Lancaster to death because she was dressed as a goth hopes to be freed from prison in weeks.
Brendan Harris was convicted of murdering Sophie, 20, as she begged a gang to stop attacking her boyfriend. He was jailed for at least 18 years in 2008. Harris was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and moved to a psychiatric hospital but is now, aged 33, back in a mainstream jail. Harris’s parole hearing is in November, meaning he could be out in weeks.
His accomplice Ryan Herbert, who was 16 at the time of the 2007 attack, was paroled three years ago. The parole board said Herbert, who admitted murder and got a 16-year term, had made “significant changes to his life” while in prison.
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Sophie’s mum Sylvia died weeks after his release, but had said: “We have a justice system that fails to deliver justice However they have progressed, the minimum justice for the family is them serving the sentence they were given. Her attackers may not have been given a life sentence, but I have.”
The thugs from Bacup, Lancs, who had been drinking heavily, and three other teenagers savagely attacked Robert Maltby, 21, in a local park. When student Sophie, cradling her boyfriend, pleaded with them to stop they turned on her. When medics arrived their injuries were so severe they could not tell them apart. Both fell into comas. Robert survived but Sophie died 13 days later. The other teenagers were also jailed.
In 2008, Judge Anthony Russell QC said: “This was feral thuggery. At least wild animals, when they hunt in packs, have a legitimate reason. This was a hate crime against people because their appearance was different.”
The Sophie Lancaster Foundation was founded in 2009 to challenge prejudice and intolerance. A Parole Board spokesman confirmed Harris’s review is in November and said: “Parole Board decisions are solely focused on what risk a prisoner could represent to the public if released and whether that risk is manageable.”
In 2021, Sophie’s tragic story was the basis for part of a Croonation Street storyline in which characters Nina Lucas and Seb Franklin were beated in an unpovoked attack. When the storyline was first discussed producers and the research team approached Sylvia, who was delighted to be able to work with them to help highlight the issue.
“I know first-hand the abuse, harassment and violence that alternative people suffer,” she explained to The Mirror. “Hate crime is usually directed at already stigmatised and minority groups and Sophie was assaulted three times before that final, sustained and brutal attack that took her life – but she never reported the earlier assaults.
“Coronation Street covering this issue means such a huge amount to me. We want alternative people to know that they shouldn’t be putting up with this prejudice and intolerance, and they should report it.
“We want the wider community to really appreciate the horror of this violence and understand that difference in itself, is not frightening, it just makes us all who we are.
“We will also use this platform to continue raising awareness of Sophie’s case with the police and judiciary to make sure that hate crime against alternative people is recognised and treated with the degree of severity that it deserves.”