Getting Away with Murder Disabled People’S Experiences of Hate Crime in the UK 1
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Getting Away With Murder Disabled people’s experiences of hate crime in the UK 1 This report is dedicated to everyone who has been a victim of a disability hate crime, and to the memory of: Albert Adams Frankie Hardwick Brent Martin Raymond Atherton Shaowei He Sean Miles Kevin Davies Barrie-John Horrell Laura Milne Christopher Foulkes Steven Hoskin Keith Philpott Steven Gale Rikki Judkins Fiona Pilkington Colin Greenwood Christine Lakinski William Ripsher Acknowledgements: Particular thanks go to: Scope, Disability Now and the United • Anne Novis, UKDPC officer and co-chair, Kingdom’s Disabled Peoples’ Council Metropolitan Police Disability Independent (UKDPC) would like to thank all the Advisory Group individuals and organisations who provided • Ruth Bashall, co-chair, Metropolitan Police evidence, advice, professional expertise and Disability Independent Advisory Group personal testimony to support this report. • Robin Van Den Hende, VOICE UK, the Ann Craft Trust and Respond Written by Katharine Quarmby • Anna Bird, Mind Edited by Ruth Scott • Jane Dellow, PIP Pack in Action • Dr Mark Sherry, UC Berkeley, USA • The family of Brent Martin • Elizabeth James, mother of Kevin Davies • Mandy Judkins, sister of Rikki Judkins • Mark Lakinski, brother of Christine Lakinski Copyright Scope, August 2008 Published by Scope, 6 Market Road, London N7 9PW www.scope.org.uk All rights reserved. ISBN: 0946828989 Getting Away With Murder Contents 2 Acknowledgements Foreword – Mark Lakinski Endorsements Chapter one – The invisible crime – official data on disability hate crime Chapter two – Under the spotlight – the real scope of disability hate crime Chapter three – The motiveless crime – barriers to recognising disability hate crime, Part I Chapter four – The power of language – barriers to recognising disability hate crime, Part II Chapter five – Preventing disability hate crime Chapter six – Innovation and best practice in tackling disability hate crime Chapter seven – The national picture Key findings Conclusion and recommendations Agenda for action Getting Away With Murder Foreword 3 As she lay dying: the last 16 minutes of my sister’s life By Mark Lakinski My name is Mark Lakinski. I have a dragging it behind her, all in daylight in a comfortable life, a nice family, nice home terraced street in Hartlepool. and a good job. I am also able-bodied. My sister, Christine, was disabled. This is how She did reach her doorstep and even tried to she died. get her key into the door-lock, but she fell and hit her head hard against the concrete She died on her own doorstep after crawling paving, after which she lay motionless. on her hands and knees in pain across a cobbled street, not being able to call out for At this point three men, not teenagers, came help, but only to groan and wish for it. out of a house just across the street. They had been drinking and smoking skunk There were people there, just across the cannabis. One of them, a 27 year old man, street, who were getting ready to celebrate had a towel around his waist after just a birthday, they knew her, at least by sight. coming out of the shower. It was his These were her neighbours. They knew she birthday. He was getting set for a good night was in trouble, they had been told that she out on the town with his friends and he was was, and they could see it, quite plainly, just getting started. for themselves. All three men walked up to Christine who However, Christine, my sister, was disabled was lying helplessly on her back on the and what happened next, I believe, was pavement, with her eyes shut, bleeding from purely down to that fact. her head injury. After all disabled people are just good for a “I’ll show you how to deal with her” said laugh and it doesn’t really matter what Birthday Boy and he then took centre stage happens to them now, does it? for the next 16 minutes, applauded and egged on by the other two. Or at least that is how some of Christine’s neighbours saw it. It started with a kick to Christine’s feet which got no response from her, so a bucket of As I have said, Christine died in great pain water was produced from Birthday Boy’s on her own doorstep, she had tried to make house and thrown over Christine, who did in it home from her friend’s house just around fact groan and move slightly at this. the corner. Her friend had given Christine some laminated flooring to use in her home. The show was getting better by the minute, Christine became ill on her way home, why not record it on a mobile phone and this stumbling into walls, struggling with her was indeed done, but only after first deleting laminated flooring and at times crawling and some of the phone’s memory - it was too full. Getting Away With Murder 4 After a few minutes everybody was ready No coroner’s court was held. I would have again. Shaving foam was brought out and liked to know if Christine could have suitably sprayed over Christine amidst survived if the mobile phone was used to call raucous laughter. an ambulance. I was told her illness was unsurvivable and Birthday Boy had not The final act was for Birthday Boy to pull contributed to her death. back his towel and urinate all over Christine as she lay dying, all recorded on the mobile If an ambulance had been called when phone for later entertainment. Christine had collapsed, she might have died with dignity and with pain relief in hospital “This is YouTube material” somebody yelled and not on a dirty pavement, violated at the in the background, hilarious laughter moment of her death by a braying bunch of followed. Christine’s laminated flooring was louts who, I firmly believe, saw her as an piled on top of her and she was left where easy target because she was disabled. she lay, Birthday Boy and friends leaving without a second thought to hit the pubs and No mention of disability hate crime was ever clubs of Hartlepool. brought up by officials dealing with this law case although Christine was visibly disabled. Somebody eventually called an ambulance “Outraging public decency” was what and when this arrived Christine was declared Birthday Boy was charged with as this dead and her body left once more, this time carried the maximum prison sentence. surrounded by blue and white police tape, as this was now a crime scene. Since Christine’s death I have been encouraged by people’s reaction to what Everything that had happened was recorded happened to her. Before Birthday Boy got on a mobile phone which the police used as three years in prison he was out on bail. He evidence against Birthday Boy. He was was shunned in the street, barred out of picked up later that night in a night club and shops and had to go into hiding in arrested. All the others present walked away Hartlepool. People think what happened to Scot-free and have faced no police charges. Christine was despicable. More should be done in order for this not to happen to any An autopsy showed Christine died of natural other disabled person. causes – pancreatitis – her pancreas had not formed properly at birth. Christine rarely touched alcohol, preferring a cup of tea and would only have one glass of wine just to please her friends. Getting Away With Murder Endorsements 5 Vernon Coaker MP, Minister for Crime: lawyers proactively prosecute people who carry out such offences. We are also working closely “I welcome this report and will carefully consider with the police to make sure that cases of the findings. disability hate crime are correctly identified and monitored through the criminal justice system “The Government takes all forms of hate crime while offering support to victims and witnesses, seriously. The UK has one of the strongest so that they can give the best possible legal frameworks in the world to protect people evidence in these cases.” from discrimination or persecution on the grounds of their disability, faith or race. Alfred Hitchcock, Deputy Assistant Commissioner, who leads on hate crime for “We are committed to tackling disability hate the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS): crime and our strategy continues to focus on prevention and intervention as well as bringing “I support the publication of this report. It adds more perpetrators to justice. Our priorities important new dimensions to an area which include increasing better monitoring of files by has not received sufficient attention in the police to identify disability hate crime incidents, past. Victims of crime with disabilities, whether better recording of incidents to establish how they have been targeted because of their many are disability related and supporting disability or for some other reason, are victims and witnesses so that they are not amongst the most vulnerable people that the discouraged from giving evidence.” MPS has contact with. It is therefore critical that their needs are addressed and the MPS Sir Ken Macdonald QC, Director of works with statutory and voluntary Public Prosecutions: organisations to ensure continued effective service delivery. It is recognised that disability “I welcome the publication of this report into hate crime is underreported to police, and disability hate crime. It will help all of us who therefore the work we are progressing to work in the Criminal Justice System to better improve access, reporting processes, understand the experiences of disabled people identification of such crimes and the needs of and to keep under review the way that we deal victims will give the MPS a much more with instances of disability hate crime.