More disability hate crime in West Yorkshire than anywhere else
There was a 172% increase in disabled hate crimes reported in 2019-20 than in 2016-17
Last updated 8th Oct 2020
West Yorkshire Police received more reports of disability hate crime than any other force across England and Wales for the third successive year during 2019-20, disturbing new figures obtained by two national disability charities can reveal today.
A total of 868 disability hate crimes were recorded in West Yorkshire last year, an exponential increase of 172% on the 319 crimes reported in 2016-17 – and a startling average of more than two crimes every day between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020.
Sapphire Malcolm has a learning disability and was the victim of a hate crime in Leeds in June this year.
She said: "I didn't realise what was going on...two youths got on the bus and started calling me names because I was wearing a hat.
I contacted someone for advice after what happened. But I didn't realise it was a hate crime.
"I wouldn't want it to happen to anyone else."
Worryingly, today’s new data shows that offenders of disability hate crime in West Yorkshire were also the most violent in England and Wales last year – half (446) of the region’s reported crimes were classified as ‘violence towards the victim’, which includes assault and harassment.
The figures, part of a joint investigation by learning disability charities Leonard Cheshire and United Response are released ahead of National Disability Hate Crime Awareness Week which starts on Saturday 10 October 2020.
Online disability hate crimes in the region also rose by more than a fifth (21%) during the twelve-month period, with 74 digital crimes reported to the police – a figure which scarcely scratches the surface of the true scale of cowardly online abuse targeted at disabled people.
Last year saw just six successful police charges from all individual disability hate crimes reported in West Yorkshire – a charge rate of a mere 0.7%. The number of police charges last year dropped by nearly half (46%) compared to 2018-19, when an already low 11 charges were made.
Mandy Haig from the Leeds disabled charity Leep 1 worked with Sapphire after what happened to help her understand that it was a hate crime.
She said: "Part of the problem is a lot of the time they don't realise that what is happening is a crime.
"And it can have such a huge effect on them, it's just awful."
They're running a session next week to help raise awareness of hate crime and help people with learning disabilities know how best to report what's happening to them.