Glasgow Times

Vile vandals scrawled slurs on phone boxes

- BY HAMISH MORRISON

SI C K E N I N G homophobi c and r a c i s t g r a f f i t i s c r a w l e d o n a phonebox in the West End has been slammed as “completely unacceptab­le”.

Slurs defaced adverts pasted to the sides of disused booths at the corner of Finnieston Street and Argyle Street.

Across the photograph of a black woman, featured in one of the advertisem­ents, were the words “S*** monkey”.

On the forehead of a man pictured on the neighbouri­ng booth was the homophobic slur “f**”.

Bigoted vandals were blasted by Glasgow cop Inspector Paul Daley who called the graffiti “offensive” and “completely unacceptab­le”.

The city council was alerted to the vandalism and aims to have offensive graffiti removed from public land or property within 48 hours.

But because the phone boxes are maintained by BT, the council has to contact the company asking for its removal.

A spokeswoma­n said: “We have informed BT of this incident.

“We’ll keep an eye on it and if it’s not away by Monday we will chase BT or remove it ourselves ( if we can).”

Inspector Daley of Greater

Glasgow Police Division added: “We will liaise with the local council to have it removed as soon as possible and would encourage anyone with informatio­n about the graffiti to contact Partick Police Station via 101.”

Reports of hate crime were on the rise in Scotland when the latest figures were published last year.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service revealed in June that reports in all categories had increased in the period 201920 from the previous year’s figures, with hate crimes relating to race and sexual orientatio­n the most frequently reported.

BT was comment. approached for

 ??  ?? Homophobic and racist graffiti – blurred out here – appeared on a West End phone box
Homophobic and racist graffiti – blurred out here – appeared on a West End phone box

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