Stamp out terrorism

The terrorist attacks in Manchester and London have led to calls for ‘something to be done’.

however, the law concerning hate crime applies only after a crime has been committed and where there is a racial motive. Assaults, arson, burglary and murder are only hate crimes when the motive is to express racial hatred towards the victim.

But by then it is too late — the crime has been committed.

Surely what has to be done is to criminalise the verbal expression of hatred and to punish it severely before murder and mayhem is committed.

Threat to murder is already a crime on our statute books.

The police and security services have been severely criticised for not acting earlier when a terrorist is found to have been under surveillance for months or even years.

Our legal systemis built on the belief that a person is innocent until proven guilty, and that you need credible evidence to justify arrest and prosecution; mere suspicion is not enough.

We need to make it a crime to radicalise (or attempt to do so) and to attend such meetings.

It should be permissible to accept the verbal evidence of informants and act on it.

It will take the best legal brains to come up with legislation acceptable to our liberal society that would stamp out home-grown terrorism. GEORGE P. RAVEN (former police

superintendent), Murcia, Spain.