Now trans and gay hate crime will mean SIX months in jail
‘Not politically motivated’
JUDGeS have been ordered to hand out tough jail terms in a crackdown on transgender and homophobic hate crimes.
offenders found guilty of stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexuality should get at least six months in prison, new sentencing guidelines state.
And there should be a six-year jail sentence for those convicted of the worst cases of intolerance against gay or transgender people.
The instructions, released yesterday by the judge-led Sentencing Council – the statutory body that recommends punishment levels – mean transgender hate offences will receive harsher sentences than domestic burglaries.
It comes after police figures revealed reports of hate crimes soared last year, with transgender hate crimes up 37 per cent on the year before.
Mr Justice Julian Goose, of the Council, said the guidelines would help the courts take a ‘consistent approach’ to sentencing the offences, adding: ‘Public order is essential for the safe-functioning of society and the law seeks to protect the public from behaviour which undermines this.’
The instructions, which will come into effect on January 1, follow a series of cases in which police have been accused of launching heavy-handed investigations into transgender hate crime allegations.
This year Surrey Police quizzed a Catholic mother-of-five after she was accused of ‘misgendering’ the trans daughter of an activist on social media by using the pronoun ‘him’.
Last week Thames Valley Police launched an inquiry into possible public order hate crimes by demonstrators who put up stickers in oxford with messages such as: ‘Woman: noun. Adult human female.’
The guidelines, which judges and magistrates must follow unless they can show doing so would run against justice, are the first to apply to public order offences – which include the offence of ‘stirring up hatred based on race, religion or sexual orientation’.
This is the only public order offence for which offenders can be convicted for what they say, write, broadcast or post on the internet or social media.
Most cases of hate crime sentenced in the courts are convictions for ordinary offences – considered aggravated – because the criminal targeted a victim from a minority group. The Sentencing Council said the least serious offences of stirring up racial hatred, in which people spread hate ‘recklessly’ without intending to do so, should be handed community punishments rather than jail time.
But the same does not apply to spreading hatred on religious or sexual orientation grounds.
For these offences, the new rules say the least serious offences should attract a sixmonth jail sentence.
For those who commit the hate crime from a position of authority, or plan to incite serious violence or whose activity was persistent and widespread, the typical jail sentence should be three years and as much as six. By contrast, the Council’s rules mean burglars can avoid jail with a community sentence.
The Council said it wanted to reassure ‘concerned respondents the guideline is not politically influenced or motivated’.
But prison charity The Howard League criticised judges for advocating short jail terms.
It told the Council’s consultation: ‘The guidelines should be encouraging the use of effective community programmes rather than expensive, ineffective short-term prison sentences.’