Hidden in Plain Sight: Inquiry Into Disability-Related Harassment

Hidden in plain sight Inquiry into disability-related harassment Inquiry into disability-related harassment Acknowledgements This inquiry has benefited from the We are also grateful to Katharine generous contributions of many Quarmby, author of ‘Scapegoat – why we individuals. The Equality and Human are failing disabled people’ for her support Rights Commission is grateful to all those and work on stakeholder engagement. individuals, disabled people’s organisations, voluntary organisations, Thanks to all the interviewees drawn from inspectorate bodies, permanent a wide field who gave their time to be secretaries, government departments and interviewed, and to Independent Social public and private authorities who have Research for their research contributions. given evidence to the inquiry. Particular thanks goes to the friends, We are grateful also to colleagues and families and survivors of disability members of the Equality and Human harassment who were generous enough to Rights Commission Disability Committee share their experiences with us. and Advisory Group for their guidance during the course of the inquiry. The inquiry would not have been possible without their collaboration. 2 www.equalityhumanrights.com/dhfi Contents Acknowledgements Page 2 Foreword Page 5 Part 1: About the inquiry Page 10 Why this inquiry? Page 10 About the Commission Page 11 The remit of this inquiry Page 12 The legislative framework Page 13 The policy framework Page 15 How we conducted the inquiry Page 18 Part 2: Ten cases Page 21 1. David Askew Page 23 2. ‘The case of the vulnerable adult’ Page 26 3. Keith Philpott Page 29 4. Shaowei He Page 33 5. Christopher Foulkes Page 35 6. Colin Greenwood Page 37 7. Steven Hoskin Page 39 8. Laura Milne Page 41 9. Michael Gilbert Page 43 10. Brent Martin Page 48 Part 3: The wider problem Page 57 Introduction Page 57 The context of harassment Page 59 First reactions Page 60 Telling someone Page 63 Forms of harassment Page 66 Prevalence Page 76 Where harassment takes place Page 80 Perpetrators Page 86 Impact Page 93 Reporting harassment Page 93 Reporting harassment to public authorities Page 96 Experiences of reporting to public authorities Page 100 Reporting issues and respondent subgroups Page 105 Initiatives to make reporting easier Page 106 Recognising and recording harassment Page 107 Multi-identity issues Page 108 3 Inquiry into disability-related harassment Part 4: Responses to harassment Page 111 Introduction Page 111 Why should agencies take action? Page 112 Schools Page 113 Local government Page 119 Antisocial behaviour Page 120 Housing providers Page 122 Healthcare providers Page 126 Safeguarding and adult protection services Page 129 Public transport operators Page 137 The police and the prosecution services Page 140 The courts Page 147 The law Page 152 Justice for victims Page 156 Understanding perpetrators Page 156 Representations and understanding of disability Page 158 Partnership responses Page 160 Inspectorates and regulators Page 160 Part 5: Conclusions Page 163 Manifesto for change Page 166 Seven core recommendations Page 166 Targeted recommendations Page 170 In summary Page 179 Appendices Page 180 Glossary Page 227 4 www.equalityhumanrights.com/dhfi Foreword by Mike Smith Lead Commissioner for the inquiry, Equality and Human Rights Commission Having grown up as a disabled person could have prepared me for the journey that myself, I am used to my fair share of we have travelled during the 18 months of discriminatory behaviour: people treating this inquiry, and the horrendous things you as though you are stupid; talking to the some disabled people have experienced. person with you instead of to you; overtly In the worst cases, people were tortured. treating you less favourably. All of this And apparently just for fun. It’s as though can be unpleasant, but is it harassment? the perpetrators didn’t think of their Probably not, but there have been other victims as human beings. It’s hard to see times in my life when I most definitely the difference between what they did, and have been subject to harassment. baiting dogs. The most serious case was a period over The really serious cases catch the headlines. about three months in the 1990s, when I lived But what about the constant drip, drip, nag, alone in a block of flats on a smart, tree-lined nag of the so-called ‘low-level’ harassment avenue. I regularly had ‘NF’, ‘cripple’ and that many disabled people face on a daily swastikas painted on my front door. I had basis. It ruins their lives. They don’t have wooden stakes pushed under my front door the confidence to go out. It undermines at night, and the ramp for my wheelchair their ability to be part of society. It makes moved. I had offensive graffiti painted on my them behave differently. bedroom window while I slept. For me, two things come out of this inquiry I called the police several times, and each that are far more shocking than the 10 cases time they just told me to ignore it and paint that we cover in more detail, awful as they my front door again. It was only after about are. The first is just how much harassment the fourth or fifth time that I was lucky seems to be going on. It’s not just some enough to get someone who took the extreme things happening to a handful of situation seriously. For the next two nights people: it’s an awful lot of unpleasant things officers sat in my hallway, waiting to catch happening to a great many people, almost the perpetrator. They installed security TV certainly in the hundreds of thousands and panic alarms. When he finally struck each year. again, including torching the garages, half a dozen officers surrounded the place and The second is that no one knows about it. caught him. Schools don’t know how many disabled pupils are bullied; local authorities and I didn’t acknowledge that I had been registered social landlords don’t know how targeted because of my disability until many antisocial behaviour victims are several years later. And despite the disabled; health services don’t know how perpetrator being caught red-handed by many assault victims are disabled; police police, the case never went to court. don’t know how many victims of crime are disabled; the courts don’t know how many Despite all of my personal and national disabled victims have access to special experience of disability issues, nothing measures, what proportion of offences 5 Inquiry into disability-related harassment against disabled victims result in conviction if they are honest with themselves, are or how many of these offences result in pretty uncomfortable about disability. a sentence uplift; and the prisons don’t Every day, people say things like ‘I hear you know how many offenders are serving are having a baby, do you want a boy or sentences for crimes motivated by girl?’, the response being, ‘I don’t mind, as hostility to disabled people. long as it’s healthy’. Or if some accident or health misfortune happens to someone, And why? How can we have created a society others indicate they would rather be dead where no one appears to be seeing what’s than have that happen to them. happening. As one of my colleagues on the inquiry said, when were young we were told On top of that, there are societal attitudes and not to stare at the disabled person. So no laws that tell people to treat disabled people one is. differently: you can be excluded from being a company director, you can be prevented OK, that’s not strictly fair. Over the last from doing jury service; you can be aborted couple of years the number of people being much later – in 2010 the total number of convicted of ‘disability hate crime’ offences abortions due to suspected disability was up has gone up. Some parts of the system are 10 per cent on the previous year; you’re not making a real effort. But last year the police allowed to sit on certain seats in aeroplanes, only recorded 1,567 cases of disability hate or go to certain public places, because you crime. It’s probably a drop in the ocean, will be a health and safety risk to others. compared with the high proportion of People with mental health issues can be disabled people reporting experiencing forced to take medication to keep everyone disability-related harassment. We need a else ‘safe’, or if they refuse, be locked up. step change in reporting and recognition. As disabled people, we even have different toilets. Something as fundamental as going Over the last 30 years disability activists to the loo, and we are separated rather than have developed the social model of make regular toilets accessible. disability. It says, put simply, the thing that’s ‘wrong with you’ should be referred Some people say they don’t know how to to as your impairment. This might be a act because they’ve never come across a physical condition, a sensory one, a mental disabled person. How can that be, when health issue, etc. But it is not your 21 per cent of the population are disabled impairment, in itself, that disables you. in some way, according to government Instead it is society’s response to you and figures? Well, they probably will have done. your impairment: the way we build the But many of the people they know who are environment; the way we construct our disabled will not choose to identify as such, attitudes to what is ‘normal’; the way we or even if they do, keep it to themselves. think people should behave.

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