No hiding place

Left: The shed where Kevin Davies was tortured

Five months ago, Disability Now published an in-depth investigation into the murders of Steven Hoskin, Barrie-John Horrell and Rikki Judkins, the manslaughter of Raymond Atherton and the torture and death of Kevin Davies. In this edition, we publish a damning analysis of 50 cases nationwide – and details of our new hate crime campaign. Katharine Quarmby reports.

Our September investigation found that none of these five crimes were identified as potential disability hate crimes.

The men all had money stolen; four were attacked by so-called “friends”, they were dehumanised and subjected to overwhelming violence. Since then other cases have come to light. Hartlepool resident Christine Lakinski collapsed near her front door in July this year. A crowd gathered. Anthony Anderson urinated on her as she lay dying. He was convicted of outraging public decency – prosecutors told Disability Now that there was “no evidence” that he targeted Miss Lakinski because of her disability, despite the fact that they were neighbours and she had a visible impairment. In another recent case, a West Midlands resident, Fiona Pilkington, killed herself and her disabled daughter, Frankie, after months of abuse by young people. Police confirm that Ms Pilkington had complained about harassment, which they logged as anti-social behaviour, not as on-going hate crime.

The police failed to flag this harassment as potential hate crimes. Prosecutors failed to ask police to gather evidence on whether they were hate crimes. Judges were unable to pass stiffer sentences as a result (or to take it into account as an aggravating factor when determining the life tariff in the case of murder).

There has been some progress. In November, Sir Ken Macdonald, the director of public prosecutions, acknowledged at a parliamentary meeting of the charity Voice UK, that when he had read about the case of Kevin Davies, he felt there may have been an underlying hostility. He added that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), needs to be more “proactive and aggressive” in examining the background of victims to see if there is any evidence of underlying hostility based on their impairment. Assistant chief constable Drew Harris, who leads on hate crime for the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), said at the same meeting that “his blood still ran cold” when he read about the recent murders of disabled people.

This month, we looked at 50 cases of crime against disabled people nationwide. These cases represent just the tip of the iceberg of the violence experienced by disabled people – as previous surveys reveal. One such, by the charity Nacro, in 2002, found that disabled people are four times more likely to be violently assaulted than non-disabled people and almost twice as likely to be burgled. A 2004 survey by the Disability Rights Commission and Capability Scotland found that 47 per cent of respondents had been attacked or frightened because of their impairment. One in five had suffered an attack at least once a week. Those with learning difficulties were most likely to be targeted. Of those who were attacked, 35 per cent were physically assaulted, 15 per cent were spat at and 18 per cent had something stolen. A report (see box, page 21, for more details) by the mental health charity Mind, published in November, found that people with mental health problems are around six times more likely to be assaulted than those in the general population. Nearly two-thirds of those polled were dissatisfied with the official response when they reported the incident.

Our cases reinforce those findings and show us striking patterns of criminality. Some disabled people are preyed upon by “friends”, robbed, and attacked. Some end up dead as a result. Others are targeted by youths who mock and often assault them. In a significant number of cases, disabled people were falsely called paedophiles – and then subjected to the law of the lynch mob. Many disabled people subjected to robbery were also humiliated – by being taunted, spat at or tipped out of their wheelchairs. We also identified another disturbing trend – of repeated vandalism of places used by disabled people (see box, page 23).

Our investigation shows that police are not taking disability hate crime seriously enough and that disabled people are being attacked for the “crime” of living independent lives. Some crimes we looked at were opportunistic. But the number of times where gratuitous violence was used suggests that disabled people are being targeted by criminals, some of whom are clearly hostile to them because of their impairment.

The cases encompass the full panoply of human nastiness. One young man with learning difficulties was viciously attacked in Blackwood, Gwent, when he went to buy a newspaper. In Princes Risborough, a blind man was spat at and verbally abused. In Birmingham, a wheelchair-user, Jonathan Lea, was battered with a pole by a motorist. Four disabled men suffered arson attacks. And 17 wheelchair or mobility scooter-users were not only robbed but tipped or dragged out of their vehicles.

Some attacks resulted in death or serious injury. Doncaster resident Robert Griffiths died in an arson attack. Christopher Foulkes, of Rhyl, Wales, was viciously attacked by a teenager (who cannot be named), who had been regularly visiting him and stealing his money. Mr Foulkes died. The teenager was originally charged with murder, but the charge was dropped, and the youth pleaded guilty to wounding with intent. In October 2006, a wheelchair-user, Craig Robins, was brain-injured in an attack after he confronted people he thought were responsible for repeated vandalism to his adapted car. In Sheffield, in April 2007, a blind father, Colin Greenwood, was kicked to death by two teenagers. According to a woman who came to his aid, Mr Greenwood had
stopped using a white stick for fear of being targeted.

Just three of the cases that we reviewed were treated as disability hate crimes. Lancashire police did not treat an arson attack on the home of a Blackpool resident, who says he had suffered attacks before at home, as a hate crime. (However, the same force is treating the robbery and assault on a young man with cerebral palsy, in Accrington, as a hate crime.) South Yorkshire police acknowledge that there had been two other incidents at the flats where Mr Griffiths lived (which were then burnt down) but maintain there is “no evidence that he was being targeted”.

The case of the young man who was robbed and threatened with being killed while buying a newspaper was not treated, Gwent police said, as a hate crime. “There was no evidence to suggest this was the motive for the alleged offence,” said a spokeswoman, although at the time police said that they believed the assault was prompted by the young man’s impairment. In the South Wales police force area, four disabled people were attacked and three robbed over a six-month period. One was jeered at by his attackers and had an epileptic seizure. Another was forced into an alleyway, robbed and called a paedophile. South Wales police failed to treat any of these as disability hate crimes. A spokesperson said: “I think officers will have been unaware of the category at that time and probably will have just dealt with it as [just] a crime.” The force is due to receive training this month on investigating disability hate crime. A good thing, too – a number of police spokespeople were distinctly hazy about what constituted a disability hate crime.

We also asked the CPS to explain why so few of our cases were treated as hate crimes. Seaumus Taylor, director of equality and diversity, said: “Turning our policy on disability hate crime into consistent practice on the ground has highlighted some challenges.” Of the ten cases that we asked CPS to look at in detail, none were treated as aggravated offences. In the case of Craig Robins, who was set upon by four people he thought were responsible for damage to his adapted car, the reviewing lawyer said: “There is no evidence that they even knew he was disabled, let alone were motivated by it” – despite the fact that Mr Robins was paralysed from the waist down and a wheelchair-user.

We also asked ACC Harris, ACPO lead on hate crimes, to comment on our findings. He said that he had created a team “to look at ways of ensuring hate crime policy is understood and applied consistently across Great Britain and Northern Ireland”.

Andrew Lee, director of the charity People First (Self Advocacy), said: “We are not surprised by what Disability Now has found,” and added that at the moment he felt that “people with learning difficulties have no access to justice”.

Julie Newman, chair of the UK Disabled People’s Council, said: “I welcome the work that is being done to expose the shame of disability hate crime. Such work is long overdue. It is unacceptable that there has been such a reluctance on the part of the police and legal services to recognise such crime and to take active measures to prevent it. As disabled people, we are all able to recount instances of hate crime… it must be the greatest unreported crime in this country.”

Neil Crowther, director of disability programmes at the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), said: “Disability Now’s investigation reveals the disturbing extent of attacks, abuse, intimidation and harassment facing particular disabled people in our communities today and the poor response on the ground of our criminal justice system.” He added: “The EHRC supports Disability Now’s campaign and we will be working with disability organisations and others to identify how best we can contribute to eliminating hate crime.”

Liz Sayce, chief executive of the charity RADAR, said: “Until Disability Now investigated, there were precious few facts and figures available to spearhead the campaign for action that we need.” She called for “the police to reach out to disabled people to build our confidence in reporting hate crimes. It is crucial
that the police and CPS believe disabled people who report crimes and give every support at each stage of the process.”

The scale of disability hate crime has never before been seen or analysed in this way. It was hidden from view, each case viewed on its own as a random, motiveless attack. Now it is hidden no longer. The patterns are clear. Ignorance is no longer an excuse.

So it’s time for change. Join our campaign (more details below) and get involved. And visit our website at www.disabilitynow.org.uk for more information on the 50 cases.

Victim twice over

by Elizabeth Choppin

People with mental health issues are eleven times more likely to be victimised than the rest of society, according to “shocking” new statistics. Another Assault*, a report published last month by mental health charity Mind, showed that 71 per cent of survey respondents with mental distress have been victimised in the last two years.

The report revealed that 90 per cent of respondents who lived in local authority housing had been victimised, while 22 per cent had been physically assaulted. Findings also showed that 27 per cent of respondents had been sexually harassed and 41 per cent were the victims of ongoing bullying. A large proportion (64 per cent) of respondents said they were dissatisfied with the response of the authorities when they reported the incident.

Londoner Nicola Barnaby*, 67, who has chronic anxiety, told Disability Now that she had endured seven years of physical and verbal abuse from tenants
in her council flat. Ms Barnaby said she felt sickened by how the police responded to her initial complaint of being pushed and called a “mad schizo”.

She said: “It could have been nipped in the bud but the police bungled it. I think I’m being targeted because I’m vulnerable and they (the perpetrators) are just bullies. Once you get a label, it is very difficult to change people’s perception of you.”

She added: “Neither the council or the police seem willing to put any effort into stopping it.”

Anna Bird, policy officer at Mind, said that the charity was “shocked” at the report’s findings: “Not just by the figures, which are definitely shocking, but by the testimony of experiences. It was often ongoing and never resorted in any justice being done.” She added that the report showed that victims of abuse were frustrated and had an expectation that nothing will be done to stop the crimes against them.

A spokeswoman from the Equality and Human Rights Commission said: “This is yet another report revealing the disproportionate level of violence visited upon disabled people in this country...The EHRC takes this issue extremely seriously and will be setting out its own actions in the new year.”

A Home Office spokeswoman said: “We take the issues raised in this report seriously and are committed to tackling the disproportionate levels of victimisation suffered by people experiencing mental health distress highlighted in the report.”

•For a copy of the report, tel: 0845 766 0163 or visit www.mind.org.uk
*Name has been changed

Vandals target disabled people’s homes and property

Elizabeth Choppin

Ongoing vandalism and abuse of disabled people and their property has been taking place across the UK and police are failing to investigate them as hate crimes.

In October, the Thistle Foundation in Scotland, which is home to more than 100 disabled residents, experienced repeated problems with stones being thrown through windows.

Sally Cameron, the marketing director, said that the attacks were “scary” for the residents (although she did not know whether they were aimed specifically at disabled people). She said that the police were not treating them as targeted attacks.

In a similar situation, a residential home for disabled people in Towcester has been repeatedly vandalised “for years and years”, with the latest incident in November, but both the manager and Northamptonshire police insist it is not specifically directed at disabled residents.

There were numerous attacks during the summer on a disabled horse-riding school, the North Warwickshire Equestrian Centre. Helen Holley, whose sister used to ride there, raised funds for repairs.

She said: “It’s one of the very few purpose-built facilities for disabled people in the area. The vandalism has had an impact on the cash flow of the charity.”
In another incident, a woman with Down’s syndrome was seriously injured in early November after a brick was thrown through the window of her care home in Warrington. According to reports, the home, which houses people with learning difficulties, has been repeatedly targeted, yet local police have ruled that it would not be treated as a hate crime.

In November, a minibus carrying disabled students from Bridge College in Offerton had a stone hurled through the back window while on the motorway.
Head teacher Maggie Thompson said: “I think that anyone who deliberately or without thought acts in the fashion the culprits did is compounding the act of callous stupidity by involving vehicles that are or may be carrying particularly vulnerable people.”

Earlier this year, a family in south Wales contacted police because their car was repeatedly vandalised after they were granted a disabled parking bay. South Wales police have refused to disclose whether the case was pursued as a disability hate crime. Disability Now is aware of a number of similar incidents.
David Congdon, director of policy for Mencap, said that police ought automatically to start an investigation of a crime involving a disabled person with a view to whether it could be disability-targeted.

Hate Crime Campaign:
10 questions for you to answer

The Disability Now campaign for hate crime against disabled people to be recognised for what it is starts right here. And we need you to be involved.
The criminal justice system has failed disabled people for far too long. They are being mocked, attacked, tortured, robbed and murdered and the criminal justice system is not responding appropriately. We’re campaigning for that to change and we will come back to you in the New Year with exciting new developments as we team up with other organisations to challenge disability hate crime. While we will continue to raise awareness of the scale of the problem, we will also campaign for changes to the way in which the criminal justice system responds to disabled crime victims.

These are our four main aims:
* We want the police to ask each disabled victim of crime whether they perceive that they were targeted because they were disabled
* We want prosecutors to ask police “Was this a hate crime?” before drawing up the charge sheet
* We want judges to refer to the fact that a crime was aggravated by hostility in their summing up and the aggravation to be reflected in the sentence
* We want to increase the reporting of hate crimes.

We’ve teamed up with Victim Support, a national charity that helps victims cope with the effects of crime. The charity wants to help all disabled victims of crime, whether or not they want to report their experiences to the police. They can be contacted at www.victimsupport.org.uk or by phone on 0845 30 30 900. If you have hearing difficulties, please call using the TextDirect access number: 18001 0845 30 30 90, or you can call the minicom (or text telephone) number on 020 7896 3776.

We’re also asking you to contact us with more of your experiences at editor@disabilitynow.org.uk

Please try and answer as many of the questions below so we can build up a better picture of disability hate crime around the country.

1. What happened and where did it take place?
2. Has it happened more than once?
3. Did you report it?
4. If so, who to? What happened as a
result? How did they respond? What was
the outcome?
5. If not, why not?

With grateful thanks to Coventry City Council, which carried out an excellent survey on hate crime