Society
Vicious new hate crime
Published 06 September 2007
Observations on disability
Kevin Davies was kept in a locked garden shed by "friends" for nearly four months, fed scraps and tortured. His benefits were stolen. He died last September. His captors were jailed in July this year.
Steven Hoskin was made to wear a dog collar and lead and dragged around his own house. He was forced to call his "friends" "sir" and "madam". His benefits were also stolen. He was forced off a viaduct and fell to his death in July last year. His tormentors were jailed in August.
A pillowcase was put over the head of Barrie-John Horrell, and he was abducted by "friends" who, in the words of the judge, "leeched off him". He was then hit over the head with a brick and strangled. He went missing in July last year. His murderers were jailed this May.
Raymond Atherton was beaten and had bleach poured over him. Teenagers, whom he considered to be friends, used his flat as a place where they could smoke cannabis and have sex. In May last year he was beaten and thrown in the Mersey. His attackers were jailed for manslaughter in April.
There are many more vicious crimes against disabled people. Just this July in Northampton, Brian Sheppard was tipped out of his wheelchair and kicked while on the ground, causing a head injury. He died a day after the a ttack.
The language used by police and prosecutors about these crimes is strikingly similar - the attacks are described as "senseless" and "motiveless". Yet there seems to be a pattern. The victims were dehumanised and often assaulted by "friends" who, in many cases, stole their money. All the incidents were vicious and unprovoked. But none of the attacks was investigated or prosecuted with a possible hate crime linked to disability taken into consideration as an aggravating factor.
Disability hate crime is not a separate criminal offence, but the Criminal Justice Act 2003 created what is known as a "sentencing provision". If there is evidence of hostility to somebody because of their disability, that must be seen as an aggravating feature (as is also evidence of racist attitudes, for example). The courts must inform everyone involved that an offence is being treated more seriously because of this. The judge can then increase the sentence (or the life tariff for murder), but the police are responsible for gathering the evidence and the Crown Prosecution Service for bringing it to the attention of the judge.
Robin van den Hende, the policy officer for Voice UK, which campaigns for justice for disabled people, says that such cases "raise questions about whether the section on disability hate crime is being applied". David Congdon of Mencap agrees. "Crimes against disabled people are as serious as race crimes or domestic violence. At one stage the police didn't want to know about those, either. We are at the same stage with crimes against disabled people."
Commander Rod Jarman, who leads on disability matters for the Association of Chief Police Officers, acknowledges that "this is an extremely important area of how policing is delivered". He says that in the cases mentioned, "we have clearly not been able to prove the aggravating factor to a sufficiently high level in order for us to put it to the courts". But that does not chime with the fact that the crimes were not investigated properly as hate crimes and that little, if any, police time went into establishing if there was a pattern of hostility against disabled people, culminating, in these four cases, in torture, hostility and death.
The CPS relaunched its policy on disability hate crimes this year, acknowledging that more needed to be done to raise awareness of the problem. Since April, the police have been recording incidents of hate crime and hostility towards disabled people. And the CPS is working with the Disability Rights Commission to develop new guidance on the treatment of disabled victims of crime.
Elizabeth James, the mother of Kevin Davies, the "gentle giant" brutally tortured in the Forest of Dean, still mourns the death of her son. Her constituency MP, Mark Harper, wrote to the Attorney General to ask for an increase in the sentences passed on his captors. The reply was that they were deemed "not unduly lenient". If disability hate crime had been cited as an aggravating factor, the sentences might well have been longer in the first place.
Katharine Quarmby is news editor of Disability Now
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