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[Drygioni]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKL2836373320080428

LONDON (Reuters) - Two teenagers who kicked a woman to death in a park because she was dressed as a "Goth" were jailed for life on Monday, police said.

Brendan Harris, 15, and Ryan Herbert, 16, kicked and punched Sophie Lancaster in what police described as a "despicable, cowardly and totally unprovoked" attack.

They set upon the 20-year-old gap year student when she tried to stop a group of youths from attacking her boyfriend, Robert Maltby, 21. The pair were left unconscious.

Lancaster's injuries were so bad that it was difficult at first to tell what sex she was, police said.

She fell into a coma and died two weeks after the attack. Her boyfriend was also left in a coma, but has since been discharged from hospital.

A jury at Preston Crown Court heard that the couple were attacked in a park in Bacup, Lancashire, last August, because they were wearing "Goth" clothing.

Detective Superintendent Mick Gradwell said: "Sophie and Rob were savagely and mercilessly attacked.

"The attack was despicable, cowardly and totally unprovoked and it would appear that both were targeted, not for anything that they said or did, but because they looked and dressed differently to the defendants and their friends."

Harris must serve 18 years for murder and Herbert 16 years.

Horrible, this; stupid, senseless violent bastards. A horrific story, one that is regrettably becoming increasingly among the idiotic youthful thugs of Britain.

What really drove the story home for me personally (it's unfortunately true, at least as far as I'm concerned, that it is all too easy to see murder victims as just another face in the news) was the second picture in the slideshow beneath the title, as she was wearing a Rabbit Ambulance T-shirt. I've always felt a kind of connection with anyone with a personality similar enough to mine to like Achewood, and it made me very sad all of a sudden.

I hope this isn't crass.

[theinevitable]

similar things have been increasingly going on all over-- I was reading earlier about massive anti-"emo" marches going on in Mexico where they hunted for kids who dressed a certain way and beat them up.

[jaydub]

I am confused though, the story mentions a life sentence for 'em and then gives years at the end that are, considering the offenders age, nowhere near life.

Seconded.  Unless it means something like no parole - as in, they actually have to serve the 16 years or whatever, not 8 with good behavior and 8 on parole. 

[Drygioni]

I am confused though, the story mentions a life sentence for 'em and then gives years at the end that are, considering the offenders age, nowhere near life.

Yes, a 'life sentence' in Britain often seems to end up being x amount of years, though I'm really, really not sure why.

I think most likely it is a 'life sentence' with a minimum of 15/16 years, assuming that good old 'good behaviour' rule.

You can of course get proper life sentences, with no possibility of being let out, so I'm not sure why they don't just say 'a minimum of 15 years' or 'a potential life sentence'.

[littlefallsmets]

Kinda makes you wanna give up on this whole species, at times.

'Nother flood, y'know. This time, no exceptions.

*sigh*

[Doc]

It really is sickening how quick people are to get hostile just because someone looks different. Some friends and I decided to goth it up one night when we went clubbing, not something we're usually into but just thought we'd have a bit of variety, and you couldn't walk from one club to another without some drunk fucker trying to start something. Just... why? Are people's lives so empty that all they have left is tearing others down for anything they can?

[side_show]

One of my closest friend's sisters was stabbed to death by a 15 year old girl while a 13 year old and a 21 year old cheered her on two streets over from where I live in late 2007.  I'm interviewing my friend about it for my evil stories play.  The murderer got only 3 years.  My friend takes peace in knowing that the girl who killed her sister is so fucked up that she feels certain she won't live to see 21.  There is so much bad and so much good in the world.  I feel, sometimes, that we've become polarized to the point where all I can do is be the eye of the storm, you know?  Like I can 1) wallow in the shit,  2) bask in the decadance, or 3) choose to be in the world but not of the world.  More and more I'm for #3, and that's bad.  To be detached, it's the only way I can cope without tearing off my skin and being the walking, talking embodiment of rage.