Racist hate crimes now outnumbering sectarian incidents

THE number of reported racially-motivated hate crimes outnumbered sectarian-motivated incidents in Northern Ireland over the past year, a report revealed yesterday.

The statistics, released by the Public Prosecution Service (PPS), showed that of the 335 files received in 2017/18, 38.5% were racially motivated while 24.8% were sectarian.

Hate crime is defined by the PSNI as “any crime which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person”.

Faith and homophobic attacks, meanwhile, each made up 12.2% of the figures.

Multiple motivations made up 8.1%, and attacks motivated by disability accounted for 4.2% of the cases. The statistics also repolicy vealed that 10 out of 13 defendants dealt with in the Crown Court in relation to hate crimes were convicted.

The conviction rate in Magistrates and Youth Courts was 67.4%.

However, there was a decrease in the amount of cases reported to the PPS, down from 386 recorded during the previous year to 335. This compares to 573 cases that were received by the PPS in 2015/16.

The majority involved violent crime (62.4%), but the number of violent offences fell by 11.4% from 236 to 209. PPS head of and information Dr Richard Scullion said: “These are distressing cases in which victims suffer simply because of their race, religion, sexual orientation or disability.

“The PPS understands the devastating effect hate crime has not just on the lives of its victims, but also the wider community.

“That is why we work hard to ensure the public can have confidence in the PPS playing its important role in the criminal justice system’s handling of these types of offences.”

Dr Scullion said the PPS would discuss the findings with stakeholders later this year.

He added: “We are fully committed to continuing our strong partnership working with the PSNI and other agencies to ensure that perpetrators of hate crime are held to account where possible.”

❝ These are distressing cases... victims suffer because of race, religion or sexual orientation