A GRIEVING mum will finally lay her daughter to rest nearly three months after she was attacked in a Bacup park, receiving injuries which proved fatal.
Relieved Sylvia Lancaster was this week given the news she had been waiting for – tests on her daughter Sophie’s body had been completed and she could go ahead with organising her funeral.
Sophie was attacked on 11 August in Stubbylee Park while walking with her boyfriend, 21-year-old Robert Maltby, from Bacup.
Both suffered serious head and facial injuries and Sophie died nearly two weeks later in Hope Hospital, Salford. Rob is recovering at home.
Heartbroken Sylvia, from Haslingden, had been warned back in September that it could be next year before she could hold her 20-year-old daughter’s final farewell.
But after finally getting the green light from the coroner, she is now planning for the funeral to be held on Monday, 12 November at 11am at Whitworth Civic Hall, with arrangements by Whitworth funeral director Frank Duffy.
It will be a humanist celebration of her life, led by Mrs Sue Davis, and friends of the former Haslingden High School pupil are invited to speak at the service to share their memories.
They will also get the chance to sign and leave messages on Sophie’s coffin.
Sylvia said: ‘When they rang and said I could arrange the funeral, I couldn't believe it. I was quite shocked, but there was also a sense of relief.
‘I did know that the process was going through, but I was just left in limbo, not being able to organise it.
‘There is no dress code, but people will come in black; as a goth, that was one of Sophie’s favourite colours.’
So far she has picked Amazing Grace and Sitting on a Mountain by Savage Garden to be played at the funeral.
Sophie’s body will be carried by hearse to Whitworth cemetery with her family and fellow mourners walking behind.
Sylvia said: ‘It has been awful not being able to move on; now I just want to get it right. It is my last goodbye. Everyone who attends will be invited to bring a flower to be placed on her grave.
‘I chose Whitworth because it is a place she loved. She liked to visit Healey Dell and would often go there alone.
‘It will be a very difficult day and very emotional.
‘This is the only thing I have had any control over and it has got to be done properly. It will give me some sort of closure.’
A memorial fund has been set up by Sophie’s family; it aims to provide a lasting legacy to raise awareness of other people’s cultures and to work towards a more tolerant, less violent society.
Donations can be made directly into the fund account at the Halifax in Bank Street, Rawtenstall (number 00458724); black memorial ribbons are also on sale from outlets across the Valley.
Black ribbon roses were sold at the Whitby Goth Festival last weekend in memory of Sophie Lancaster to erect a memorial bench and plaque there.
Sylvia said: ‘I attended the festival and it was wonderful. The people there were just so caring; it is a real community. I felt close to Sophie being there.’
l FIVE youths charged with the murder of Sophie Lancaster appeared at Preston Crown Court on Wednesday morning.
They will appear again on 14 December at a plea and case management hearing with a provisional trial date set for 10 March next year.
Three of the youths, who are all aged between 15 and 17, had their bail extended; the other two previously remanded had their custody extended.
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hp-source, GUILDFORD (08/11/2007 at 19:25)
First of all, the issue that hasn't been spotlighted enough - this was a hate crime. Not just any mob-handed murder, but a lynch mob attack symbolically directed at a sector of the population - goths - that I represent.
Secondly, the victims were relatively young, and gothic - in other words, precisely the sort of people that many of the correspondents on
http://www.rossendalefreepress.co.uk/news/s/532425_five_in_court_over_girls_murder
would nervously cross the street to avoid if they saw them today.
What came across very clearly in the comments on that page was a widespread pathological hatred and fear of young people, people who pursue alternative lifestyles and/or people who are both of the above. And, allied to this, pathological hatred and fear of "liberals", defenders of human rights, foreigners and anyone outside the correspondents' limited life experience.
And this, surely, is what motivated Sophie's killers.
Therefore I say unto you: you're a right bunch of hypocrites, aren't you! You narrow-minded conservatives taught the killers their social politics, the belief system that drove them to kill. They are your children (metaphorically or literally?). Similar murders will continue to occur until your social politics is erased from the face of the earth.
Posthumously, Sophie lent her name to a campaign group - "stamp out predjudice, hatred and intolerance everywhere". I fear they have an uphill struggle ahead of them.
michelle howarth (10/04/2008 at 20:32)