Attacks on disabled people are hate crimes, too

Steven Hoskin died after being tortured and then plunging from a viaduct - one of several horrific murders of disabled people in the UK. Andy Rickell warns that these high-profile cases are just part of a shocking growth in disablist abuse.
Steven Hoskin, a man with learning difficulties, who was tortured before being forced off a viaduct, resulting in his death.
Steven Hoskin, a man with learning difficulties, who was tortured before being forced off a viaduct, resulting in his death. Photograph: Devon and Cornwall Police/PA Wire

In a particularly disturbing murder case involving a man with profound learning difficulties, a teenage girl and two men tortured 38-year-old Steven Hoskin before forcing him to his death from a 100ft viaduct in St Austell, Cornwall.

Yesterday, they were jailed for murder and manslaughter. As well as drugging him with 70 paracetamol tablets, burning him with cigarettes and forcing him to walk around on a dog lead, the offenders made Mr Hoskin confess to being a paedophile before killing him. The evidence in this case suggests that had Mr Hoskin not been a disabled person, his murder would never have taken place.

This was clearly a hate crime - a murder motivated primarily by hostility toward his learning difficulties. Disability charity Scope regards this an extreme case of disablism - abuse or discrimination of disabled people arising from the belief that they are inferior to others.

Disturbingly, this case is not a one-off but a stark example of the many shocking crimes faced by disabled people, based on society's fears and prejudices about their impairments. In recent weeks, three other similar crimes involving disabled victims have been reported, indicating that disablist crime is a growing trend in our society.

One incident in Gloucestershire involved a man with learning difficulties being locked in a garden shed, beaten, burned and humiliated - before he was finally murdered. Another victim with learning difficulties in south Wales was strangled and beaten with a stick in an isolated spot. In Northampton, a man was tipped out of his wheelchair and kicked while on the ground, causing a head injury. He died the next day.

These murder cases show varying levels of disablist crime - from taking advantage of a victim's vulnerability to commit a crime, to the impairment being the reason or motive for the crime. They are symptomatic of the scant disregard for disabled people's dignity and human rights generally in our society, which manifests itself in a number of different ways.

A recent poll of disabled people carried out by Scope indicated that as many as 47% said they had either experienced physical abuse themselves or witnessed physical abuse of a disabled companion. All of this shows that sadly the case of Mr Hoskin is just one of many and that ignorance, prejudice and fear can lead to tragedy for disabled people as it can for any minority group.

Scope has successfully campaigned to ensure that disablist crimes should be treated with the same gravity as racist, homophobic and other hate crimes.

Section 143 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 allows for sentences to be increased for disablist hate crimes. The law specifically refers to hostility based on 'the disability or perceived disability of the victim' and offences motivated by hostility towards persons who have a disability. However, although disablist crime is recognised by the law, this does not seem to be reflected in people's attitudes and such crimes attract little public outcry.

There is a deep lack of awareness about disablist crime, similar to the public's ignorance of racist hate crimes prior to the Stephen Lawrence case. This was not taken seriously in its early stages - but it eventually became a watershed case, which resonated widely with the public and led to stiffer sentencing for racist crime.

In a similar way, we would like the general public to give greater recognition to crimes such as the murder of Mr Hoskin and see them for what they are - disablist hate crimes.

Disablist crimes should be treated with the same seriousness by the public as murders motivated by racism or homophobia. Yet sadly, reaction to the shocking case of Mr Hoskin - and recent similar cases - has been muted and indeed they seem to have barely registered on the public consciousness. Some of the most vulnerable members of our society are being subjected to calculated abuse on an unprecedented level and the recent spate of disablist crimes has done little to change attitudes about this.

What will it finally take to bring home to the public the shocking hate crimes faced by disabled people?

· Andy Rickell is an executive director at the disability organisation Scope.