Ryan Herbert, 16, and Brendan Harris, 15, savagely kicked and stamped Sophie Lancaster to death as she begged them to stop beating her boyfriend.

The 20-year-old's pleas as she cradled Robert Maltby in her arms went unheeded as Harris delivered a flying kick to her head and Herbert volley-kicked her in the face "like a ball in flight" during the assault in a park in Bacup, Lancashire.

Neither of the defendants knew their victims and the only motive was that they simply looked different to them, Preston Crown Court heard.

Miss Lancaster, a gap year student, died from serious head injuries two weeks after the attack in Stubbylee Park on August 11 last year.

Her boyfriend, art student Robert Maltby, 21, also a Goth, survived but suffered memory loss and has no recollection of the attack.

Yesterday, Mr Maltby, who did not attend court, said he had lost his "entire world" and wished he had been kicked to death instead so his girlfriend could have been spared.His parents, Tracy and David, have run the Cheers off-licence in Halifax Road, Todmorden, for 10 years.

A jury of nine men and three women took just two hours to unanimously find Harris guilty of murder.

Harris, of Spring Terrace, Bacup, had denied murder but pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Maltby after drinking two litres of cider, a bottle of Stella Artois lager and "quite a lot of" peach schnapps.

Herbert, of Rossendale Crescent, Bacup, who had also been drinking alcohol throughout the night, admitted murdering Miss Lancaster and pleaded guilty to assaulting her boyfriend.

Both had previous convictions for an assault in the same park in April last year.

Three other youths, two aged 17 and one 16, who cannot be named for legal reasons, earlier pleaded guilty to assaulting Mr Maltby. Charges of murdering Miss Lancaster against them were dropped.

Judge Anthony Russell QC warned Harris and Herbert they faced life sentences, but that he would set the tariffs after reading pre-sentence reports.

Sentencing was set for April 28, along with the three other youths.

Outside court, Miss Lancaster's mother, Sylvia, 52, who works with young offenders with care service Connexions, said society needed to make changes to prevent similar deaths.

She said: "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."

Det Supt Mick Gradwell, senior investigating officer at Lancashire Police, criticised the conduct of the defendants and their families. He said that when Harris was initially interviewed he was "laughing and joking" with his mother.

"The general attitude of the defendants' parents during the whole process has been appalling," he said.

The jury at the two-week trial was told the young couple were walking home from a friend's house to their flat in King Street shortly before midnight when they began chatting with a group of teenagers.

A good-natured conversation took place and they even shared their cigarettes.

However, the mood changed suddenly when the five teenage boys launched an unprovoked assault. Harris started the orgy of violence with a flying kick to Mr Maltby's head.

The gang, described in court by the prosecutor Michael Shorrock QC as "acting like a pack of wild animals", then punched, jumped and stamped on him until he was unconscious. Miss Lancaster cried for them to stop as she cradled his head on her lap but then Herbert and Harris turned on her.

When paramedics arrived, they could not tell what sex either victim was because of the severity of the injuries.

Both fell into comas but Miss Lancaster never regained consciousness.

Harris claimed he stood aside and watched the attack, but a number of witnesses said he was "in the thick of it".

Following the verdict, Judge Russell thanked and awarded £250 to four witnesses who had helped the victims at the scene.