“Once again we have a justice system that fails to deliver justice,” says Sophie Lancaster’s mother Sylvia of the Parole Board’s decision to release murderer Ryan Herbert from jail.
Sylvia Lancaster, the mother of 20-year-old Sophie who was murdered in 2007 for being a goth, has released a statement following the news that one of the killers, Ryan Herbert, is set to be freed from prison.
After 15 years in jail, the murderer – who was given a life sentence along with another attacker, while the other three involved in carrying out this brutal hate crime received between four years and four months, and five years and 10 months, for grievous bodily harm – will be released on licence, as decided by the Parole Board.
"I’m obviously very disappointed in the result of the parole hearing," writes Sylvia. "Once again we have a justice system that fails to deliver justice. However much progress people make in prison, they have been given their sentence in recognition of the extent of their crime.
"The judge at the murder trial described the attack on Sophie as ‘feral’, with the attackers’ behaviour ‘savage and merciless’. Her injuries were so severe, the paramedics attending the scene could not facially distinguish if she were male or female. How can you bear knowing the reality of the level of violence my daughter was subjected to, and stack that up against reducing the minimum tariff because they have done well in prison?
"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."
In the years since Sophie's murder, Sylvia has done some truly incredible work in her daughter's name with The Sophie Lancaster Foundation.
"The original aims were just to get out there and raise awareness," Sylvia told Kerrang! in 2017. "Let young people see that there’s nothing to be frightened of, that we should be embracing difference, not scared of it. That was really the original thought behind it.
“It’s about taking something terrible that happened and turning it into something positive,” she said.
You can head here to see more on the The Sophie Lancaster Foundation.
Read this: The legacy of Sophie Lancaster: "We should be embracing difference, not scared of it"
