The couple were targeted in Bacup, Lancashire, by five teenagers who behaved "like a pack of wild animals", Michael Shorrock QC told the court in his opening speech. The killers celebrated their attack on the goths - or "moshers" - by telling friends afterwards that they had "done summat good", and claiming: "There's two moshers nearly dead up Bacup park - you wanna see them -they're a right mess."

Police who arrived at the scene could not tell whether the young woman was male or female because of her horrendous injuries. Shorrock told the hearing: "Sophie and Robert were singled out not for anything they had said or done but because they looked and dressed differently. Kicks and stamps on their heads and body followed as the gang goaded each other on." - more on this story

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