Brendan Harris, convicted of murdering 20-year-old Sophie Lancaster in a hate attack, has been approved for prison release despite denying he personally hit her. The Parole Board deemed him safe to return to the streets following a review last year.
Former Justice Secretary David Lammy launched a legal attempt earlier this year to keep the 34-year-old behind bars. Official papers show Harris admitted targeting Sophie's boyfriend, Robert Maltby, but denied any "personal involvement" in the physical violence used against Sophie.
Parole Board ruling
Parole Board paperwork states: "[Harris] accepted that he had attacked the male victim but said that when the female victim came to comfort the male victim he had not struck her." However, he accepted that the offences amounted to a group attack and that he was part of that group and was therefore responsible, as were others, for the death of the female victim.
Harris was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and moved to a psychiatric hospital, where, in 2013, he broke the nose of a male nurse with what a court heard was a single substantial blow. He was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm and four months was added to his life sentence, returning to prison in 2014.
Appeal dismissed
Harris' parole hearing took place in November last year, but Mr Lammy appealed against the decision to free him, claiming he had never accepted his guilt over Sophie's murder. Stephen Dawson, on behalf of the Parole Board, dismissed the appeal, meaning Harris will now be freed.
Mr Dawson said: "This was not a case where [Harris] was denying the nature and seriousness of the offending. His denial was of the issue of factual detail as to whether he physically assaulted the female victim." The significant issue identified by the panel was the fact that Harris accepted that his behaviour led to the death and serious injury of two victims.
Attack and aftermath
Harris was handed a minimum 18-year life sentence in 2008 after he was part of a teenage gang that battered Sophie as she tried to protect her boyfriend, 21-year-old Robert Maltby. His accomplice Ryan Herbert, who was 16 at the time of the 2007 attack, was paroled three years ago.
Sophie's mother Sylvia died weeks after his release, but had said: "We have a justice system that fails to deliver justice." She added: "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, Lancashire, who had been drinking heavily, and three other teenagers savagely attacked Robert Maltby 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.
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. In 2021, Sophie's tragic story was the basis for part of a Coronation Street storyline in which characters Nina Lucas and Seb Franklin were beaten in an unprovoked attack. When the storyline was first discussed, producers and the research team approached Sylvia.
"I know first-hand the abuse, harassment and violence that alternative people suffer," she told The Mirror at the time. "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."
