THE mother of murdered East Lancashire student Sophie Lancaster is marking the eighth anniversary of her daughter’s death by renewing her campaign against hate crime.
Sylvia Lancaster lost her daughter in 2007, days after she was viciously attacked for dressing ‘like a goth’ as she walked through Stubbylee Park in Bacup with her boyfriend Robert Maltby.
In memory of the 21-year-old from Haslingden, Sylvia set up The Sophie Lancaster Foundation to challenge the prejudice and intolerance towards people from alternative subcultures and to campaign to extend the UK Hate Crime legislation to include people from alternative subcultures or lifestyle and dress.
Just as the eighth anniversary of Sophie’s death approaches, Sylvia was set to make a new appeal to make targeting alternative subcultures a crime in all parts of the UK, during a talk at The University of Manchester today.
Sylvia, who was awarded the OBE in 2014 for her campaigning, was set to give her personal perspective on Sophie’s murder, the trial and the work of the Foundation during The Sophie Lancaster Foundation Talk at The John Rylands Library.
She said: “With it coming up to the eighth anniversary we want to renew our campaign.”
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