SophieLANCASTERThe mother of Sophie Lancaster, who died aged 20 after being attacked in a park near her home, remembers her as a thoughful and sensitive individual.The former Haslingden High School pupil was a gap-year student hoping to attend Accrington and Rossendale College to do an English degree.Her mother, Sylvia Lancaster, said: "Sophie was a thoughtful, sensitive individual and she would not have wanted her death to have been in vain."Police said the attack could have been provoked by Sophie and her boyfriend wearing "gothic" fashion.But her mum said: "I wasn't concerned for her. I was proud that she was expressing herself."I'd always told her she could be whatever she wanted to be and I was glad she was an individual."She would explain to me that being a Goth is all about being sensitive and creative."They're often very thoughtful souls who are just attracted to what they see as the romance in wearing period, rather than modern, clothes."Anyway, to me, more important than the way she looked was her personality."She could be opinionated and argumentative, like any teenager, but she was kind-hearted, caring and really interested in the world around her."She sustained fatal wounds after trying to protect her boyfriend Robert Maltby from a beating, and died on 24 August 2007, several days after the attack in Bacup, Rossendale in Lancashire.
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