A MEMORIAL to battered teenager Sajjad Mahmood is set to be included in a new beauty spot around the mill lodge where his body was found.

The parents of Sajjad, whose body was left in Hagg's Lodge in Accrington for ten days before being discovered, have asked for him to be remembered in the plan, being developed by Groundwork East Lancashire.

Sajjad, 18, of Royds Street, died when he was beaten up by three drug dealers and thrown into the lodge in April 1998.

Groundwork wants to open up the lodge, next to Asda in Hyndburn Road, Accrington, which is currently used only by anglers.

One entrance to the lodge has been closed off after steps from the nearby Asda store were declared unsafe.

But it could soon become a destination for families going for picnics and for schools teaching youngsters about the environment. Maggie Flynn, from Groundwork said today that there was scope to place a memorial to Sajjad in the new beauty spot, possibly even taking the form of a sculpture.

Picnic benches will be placed around the lodge, along with new facilities for anglers. Events like pond dipping will also be held for local schools. All of the ideas have to be approved by local community groups first. Mrs Arshad Mahmood, Sajjad's mother, today flew out to Pakistan so she could be by her son's grave for the third anniversary of his burial. Before she left her home in Charter Street, Accrington, she said: "I think it would only be right that there should be something to remember my son by there. "It is the place where he died after being the victim of a vicious, brutal, horrible attack by three vicious and brutal men. Everybody in Accrington was appalled by what happened."

The project is set to cost £40,000 and is part of a £300,000 package of schemes to green up Hyndburn. In May 1999, James Butler, 20, of Persia Street, Accrington, pleading guilty to manslaughter while Karl Barton, 21, of Manor Gardens, Accrington, and Wayne Kelly, 22, of Pearl Street, Accrington, were both found guilty of grievous bodily harm with intent after a trial.

They admitted drugs offences at the trial at Preston Crown Court. Butler was sent to prison for 10 years and his accomplices received six years. A post mortem examination revealed Sajjad had been badly beaten before he was killed but failed to discover the cause of death.

Mrs Mahmood has said the failure by police to fully investigate her son's disappearance cost vital evidence.