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Met accused of 'complacency' as gay hate crime rises
Martin Bentham, Home Affairs Editor22 Oct 2009
The Met was accused of “complacency” over homophobic crime today after figures showed an 18 per cent rise in gay hate offences in the capital.
There were 1,192 homophobic offences in London in the year to September — nearly 200 more than in the previous 12 months.
The surge in offending was highlighted by the recent killing of 62-year-old civil servant Ian Baynham in Trafalgar Square.
There was a big rise in gay hate crime in several boroughs, including Newham — where the number of offences increased 190 per cent in a year — Bexley, Southwark and Islington.
The charity's chief executive, Ben Summerskill, said many offences were unreported because of concern about the unsympathetic attitude of some officers. “The Met has made progress in the past decade, but it is patting itself on the back and becoming complacent,” he said.
“Homophobic crime is often still not treated as seriously as other offences and our research has shown that 75 per cent of gay people don't have confidence in reporting incidents to the police.”
Despite his concerns, he said the police had made significant improvements since the flawed inquiry into serial killer Colin Ireland, jailed for life in 1993 for killing five gay men. There are now officers in each borough responsible for liaising with gay residents, and efforts have been made to recruit more homosexual officers. But Mr Summerskill said the absence of openly gay senior officers was an issue, while the use of liaison officers was an implicit admission of an inability to deal with gay Londoners.
Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson admitted earlier this year that homphobic offences were under-reported, but said the rising number of recorded crimes was the result of increased willingness of victims to come forward.
The Met figures show the highest number of offences was in Westminster, with 102 crimes in 12 months, although this was only a fractional rise. In Southwark offences were up 58 per cent to 71, in Bexley they rose 84 per cent, and in Newham cases went up from 11 to 32. There were increases in Tower Hamlets, Croydon, Kensington and Chelsea, Wandsworth and Hammersmith and Fulham, but a nine per cent fall in Hackney.
Mr Baynham, of Beckenham, died two weeks after being attacked on 25 September as he walked with a friend through Trafalgar Square. Three people face manslaughter charges.
There have been three other suspected homophobic killings in London in the past year. In July Edward Highwood, 79, was killed at his Greenwich home, Gerry Edwards, 59, was stabbed to death at his flat in Bromley in March, and in November last year David Cooper, 28, was beaten to death at his flat in Woolwich.
Reader views (6)
It's always "complacency" when a pet project/cause/wet dream isn't getting the attention it's proponents think it should. Sorry, but there's other things happening out there too - not to mention others claiming complacency over THEIR hobbyhorse subject.
Finite resources - infinite number of things to expend them on.
- Rogan, Irving, 22/10/2009 20:01
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Is this complaint a joke? Total recorded crime in London last year was 858,578 and Londoners are supposed to be wringeing their hands over this? It's o.1% of all incidents. And one has to remember that included in a homophobic offenc was suggesting that a police horse is gay or calling someone a rude name...hardly what we really care about. The important point as made by others is that the police are in general complacent about all crime, because they spend their time time ticking stupid boxes to track nonsensical statistics like this. A crime is a crime is a crime. Who cares what the underlying reason is, just PREVENT them as opposed to watching them on CCTV and don't waste our time asking what ethnic or sexual minority we may belong to.
- Jon, london, 22/10/2009 12:51
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Mr Baynham was killed randomly , no amount of laising or gay police officers could have prevented that.
- Dave Mcc, France, 22/10/2009 11:55
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Coppers are complacent.
Full stop.
- Reuben Camara, Morecambe Compound, EUSSR, 22/10/2009 10:02
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I don't think they're being complacent specifically with regards to gay hate crime, they're complacent about all crime.
- Bob, Cheam, 22/10/2009 08:53
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"But Mr Summerskill said the absence of openly gay senior officers was an issue, while the use of liaison officers was an implicit admission of an inability to deal with gay Londoners".
What utter rubbish. Police officers should be promoted on their ability, not simply to fill quotas. The second part of Mr Sumerskill's sentence makes no sense at all either - he's simply moaning for the sake of drumming up publicity.
- James Baker, Bromley, 22/10/2009 08:14
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