The haunting last picture of Sophie Lancaster who was beaten to death for being a Goth

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The family of Sophie Lancaster, who was beaten to death for being a Goth, have released a haunting picture of her battered face as she lay fighting for life in a hospital bed.

Her eyes purple with bruising and kept alive by machinery, the 20-year-old student was eventually to die of her injuries 13 days after the attack.

Tragically, she had sustained the fatal wounds after trying to protect her boyfriend Robert Maltby from a savage beating.

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Battered: Her mother's picture of Sophie Lancaster lying in a hospital bed close to death

A picture of him lying unconscious in hospital, showing his similarly battered face, was also released by detectives.

He was to survive and yesterday described the agony of losing his girlfriend.

The shocking images of Sophie's final moments were released as two teenagers were convicted of her murder.

Binge-drinking Brendan Harris, 15, and Ryan Herbert, 16, had drunk at least four pints of strong cider and downed shots of schnapps when they stamped on the head of the gap year student in a park in a quiet Lancashire town.

Yesterday it emerged that they had been found guilty of affray over a similar attack on a 16-year-old boy close to the same park four months earlier, but instead of being locked up were freed with a six-month community service order.

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Killers: Brendan Harris, 15, was yesterday found guilty of Miss Lancaster's murder. Ryan Herbert, 16, admitted murdering the gap year student and assaulting her boyfriend

Last night police criticised the lack of control shown by the killers' parents for allowing their teenage sons to be out drinking into the early hours and for showing contempt for the police and judicial system.

Officers said Harris and his mother sniggered while he was interviewed by police about the appalling attack.

Speaking after the conviction of the conviction of the boys, Sophie's mother said she hoped releasing the picture of her dying daughter would ensure her death was not in vain.

Sylvia Lancaster, 52, a youth worker who is separated from Miss Lancaster's father, John, 45 said: "I stand outside this house of justice, not as Sophie's mother, but as her voice.

"Her voice that was cruelly silenced in a single mindless act.

"Sophie was a thoughtful, sensitive individual and she would not have wanted her death to have been in vain.

"I hope therefore that, as a society, we can use what has happened to reflect on where we are going and what changes we need to make to prevent others suffering in this way."

Miss Lancaster's murder, which occurred on the same night that father-of-three Garry Newlove was being killed by a gang of drunken youths 40 miles away in Cheshire, yet again highlights the deadly toll binge drinking and violence is having on Britain's streets.

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Tragic: Sophie Lancaster was murdered by Harris because she dressed as a Goth

"I just really wish that she had just legged it and got out of there and waited until they had left and come back, but I just wish she had left me to die if I'm honest," he said.

Preston Crown Court heard that Miss Lancaster and Mr Maltby both from Bacup, Lancashire, were making their way through the town's Stubbylee Park shortly after midnight on August 10 last year.

Initially, they struck up a good-natured chat with a large group of teenagers and Miss Lancaster handed out cigarettes but suddenly a gang of five teenage boys turned on Mr Maltby, a university art student.

One of the gang was heard to shout "let's bang him," before Harris started the orgy of violence with a flying kick to Mr Maltby's head.

Miss Lancaster, who was due to start an English degree at university a month later, cradled her boyfriend's head in her lap and begged his laughing attackers to leave him alone after they battered him unconscious.

But instead the group, "acting like a pack of wild animals", ignored her pleas and Herbert and Harris began "savagely and mercilessly" raining down blows on her head "as though it was a football" until she fell into a coma.

Giddy and hyperactive following the assault, the youths left the couple for dead, before boasting to friends: "We've just beaten someone up...

"There's two moshers nearly dead up Bacup Park.You wanna see them, they're a right mess."

One 14-year-old girl, who witnessed the attack, dialled 999 in an effort to get help. Her hysterical call was played to the jury during the trial.

When paramedics arrived they found the couple lying side by side covered in blood.

Their injuries were so severe they were unable to establish whether the victims were male or female.

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Victim: Miss Lancaster's boyfriend Robert Maltby lies unconcious in hospital after the attack

The pattern of her attackers footwear was also imprinted on Miss Lancaster's face.

The couple, who had been together for six months but had already talked about getting married, were both taken to hospital in comas.

Although Mr Maltby survived, he has suffered lasting injuries and has virtually no memory of the attack.

Miss Lancaster never regained consciousness and died 13 days later.

Michael Shorrock QC, prosecuting, told the jury: "The attack was totally unprovoked.

"It would appear that Mr Maltby and Miss Lancaster were singled out, not for anything they had said or done, but because they dressed differently to the defendant and his friends."

Male and female followers of the "Goth" or "mosher" cult typically have dyed black hair with black eye make-up and black nail varnish.

They wear black period-style clothes.

At the time of her murder Miss Lancaster had "in excess" of 20 piercings in her face, lip and nose and dark dreadlocked hair.

Although she and Mr Maltby realised their appearance could sometimes get them into trouble - he had been attacked previously - they refused to alter their image because of the ignorance of others.

Today a jury of nine men and three women found Harris, who had already pleaded guilty to attacking Mr Maltby, guilty of murder.

Herbert, who is known by the nicknames Razzy and Peanut, admitted Miss Lancaster's murder and assaulting Mr Maltby at an earlier hearing.

Three other males, two aged 17 and one 16, who cannot not be named, also pleaded guilty to assaulting Mr Maltby.

Herbert and Harris face mandatory life terms when sentenced next month.

Both are the product of broken homes, Herbert and Harris were already well known to police when they killed Miss Lancaster, often congregating to drink alcohol at KG's cafe - a council-run Internet cafe for teenagers.

Described by locals as a "vicious, violent yob" with a "nasty laugh," Herbert never knew his father and he and his older sister, Kirsty, 18, were raised alone by their mother Christine, 49, a worker in a shoe factory, on a gloomy estate.

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Devastated: Boyfriend Robert Maltby, who was also beaten by the thugs, at girlfriend Sophie Lancaster's funeral

He started drinking and smoking drugs as young as 13 and belonged to a gang known locally as the Bacup Crew.

They posted images of themselves, brandishing wooden poles and singing rap songs, on the video website YouTube.

On the night of Miss Lancaster's death Herbert, who is autistic and semi-literate, had been drinking and was seen bragging about taking the virginity of a 16-year-old schoolgirl in the park earlier in the evening.

Police later described his behaviour as "repulsive" and "out-of-control." Harris' upbringing too was depressingly familiar.

As a young boy he was raised by his father, Gerald, a textile factory foreman, and mother, Martine. But the pair never married and have since split.

He admitted drinking heavily and starting the chain of events which lead to Miss Lancaster's murder when he punched Mr Maltby, telling police he did it simply because he was "drunk and showing off".

Following the verdict, Detective Superintendent Mick Gradwell, of Lancashire police, condemned the "appalling behaviour" of the parents of all five boys for failing to instil any discipline or respect for life in their sons.

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The park in Bacup Lancashire where the Miss Lancaster and her boyfriend were attacked

"We have to be critical of the parents in this case, their attitude when their sons were arrested and for letting them out into the early hours to go and commit this sort of violence," he said.

"There is a total lack of parental responsibility.

"I don't think they have taken completely seriously how repulsive this incident was.

"During the police interview Harris and his mother were taking the matter very lightly and there was sniggering during some of the evidence.

"It was as if they didn't care, they were almost laughing and joking about what they had done.

"Their attitude seemed to be that the only thing their sons had done wrong was get caught."

Mr Maltby, who is still too afraid to use public transport because of the attack, said he has struggled to cope with his girlfriend's death.

"She was my entire world, I'm not ashamed to say that," he said.

"Everything I was doing outside being around Sophie was really just to make it so we could have a decent life together, and just when we have tried that hard, we have put in so much effort, some child comes along and decides to ruin it all for you, it is just not fair."

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