TWIN BLOW TO HATE VICTIMS

Thousands attacked Hardley any go to court

MOST victims of hate crime never see justice done.. Figures obtained through Freedom of Information requests show more than 10,700 such crimes were reported across England and Wales in 2022/23. But only 132 – 1.2% – of them resulted in a charge or summons.

Meanwhile, a new YouGov poll found two thirds of the public think people who see a disability hate crime take place should offer to be a witness.

Around half of the crimes reported involved violence and over 1,300 occurred online. While disability hate crime reports are down by 3.7% from the record number of incidents in 2021/22, they are still higher than prepandemic levels.

The figures were collected by charities Leonard Cheshire and United Response, who said in a joint statement: “We need to narrow the justice gap between the number of disability hate crimes recorded and the number of offences resulting in a conviction.

“There are real people behind these numbers and once a person has been a target of hate, they can be utterly changed.”

The three most common reasons for no charges being brought were: “victim withdrawing”, “no suspect identified” and “evidential difficulties”.

The charities also commissioned a YouGov poll to discover more about public attitudes to combatting hate crime. It found that 86% think people should offer support to the victim if safe to do so. And 76% think people should offer to be a witness.

Kayleigh, experienced disability hate crime but was supported during the incident.

On how the experience has impacted her, she said: “I get a feeling that someone’s going to say something to me. ‘It’s alright’, I say. ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.’ But it’s not easy.”

Because not all hate crimes are reported, their prevalence is severely underrepresented. Kerry, from Milton Keynes, told the charities: “As someone who has faced abuse online and offline, I can understand not reporting it to the police.

“I didn’t want to be seen as a ‘victim’ or a ‘burden’. I thought I could handle it, just ignore it or even brush it off.”

Despite the long-lasting impact of being targeted by a hate crime, the Government announced it will not publish a new hate crime strategy that was promised in 2021.

The charities’ statement added: “We are asking the Government to rethink the plan not to publish a hate crime strategy. If they want to set targets for police responses to crime, then disability hate crime should be a key focus, not brushed aside.

“Our research shows people want to help in a safe way. We need everyone to be allies in the fight against disability hate crime.”