• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About DNS
  • Subscribe to DNS
  • Advertise with DNS
  • Support DNS
  • Contact DNS

Disability News Service

the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues

  • Home
  • Independent Living
    • Arts, Culture and Sport
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Employment
    • Housing
    • Transport
  • Activism & Campaigning
  • Benefits & Poverty
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
You are here: Home / News Archive / Appeal possible over ‘hate crime’ killing sentence

Appeal possible over ‘hate crime’ killing sentence

By John Pring on 4th April 2013 Category: News Archive

Listen

theweek120by150The attorney general is considering whether to ask the court of appeal to lengthen the prison sentence handed to a man who killed a disabled, gay teenager in an apparent hate crime.

Steven Simpson was celebrating his 18th birthday in his own flat last June when he was doused in tanning oil by one guest and then set alight by another of the party-goers. He died in hospital as a result of the “significant” burns he received in the attack.

Sheffield Crown Court heard last month that Simpson, who had Asperger’s syndrome and learning difficulties, had been the victim of disablist and homophobic abuse during the party in his flat in Cudworth, near Barnsley.

He had been covered in tanning oil by one of his guests, after being encouraged to strip to his underwear.

Jordan Sheard, who had crashed the party, then held a lighter to Simpson’s groin after being egged on by other party-goers. When the oil caught light and Simpson was engulfed in flames, Sheard fled the party.

Sheard, now 20, and also from Cudworth, pleaded guilty to manslaughter, but was sentenced to only three years and six months by Judge Roger Keen.

It is the latest in a series of court cases in which judges have been criticised for failing to increase sentences for crimes apparently motivated by disablist hostility.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has now confirmed to Disability News Service that it did treat Simpson’s death as a disability hate crime and that its prosecutor had requested a sentence “uplift” from the judge under section 146 of the Criminal Justice Act, because of Sheard’s disability- and homophobic-related hostility.

The CPS has also confirmed that the judge failed to grant this sentence uplift.

In the wake of the sentencing, the Conservative attorney general, Dominic Grieve, received a flood of requests to appeal the sentence. His office is now “seeking further details” about the case from the CPS.

One of the requests for an appeal came from the Disability Hate Crime Network (DHCN).

Stephen Brookes, a DHCN coordinator, said the case had sparked the “single highest response” from members in the network’s four years.

He said that “police officers, legal and academic experts in hate crime, and most importantly disabled people and their organizations” had raised concerns about the sentence and the “clear failure” to treat the killing as being motivated by hostility under section 146.

Brookes added in the letter: “The unanimous reflection is that the case without any reservations or doubt demonstrated hostility by Jordan Sheard towards Steven Simpson on the basis of both his sexual orientation and disability.”

A spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office said: “We are considering whether or not to refer the sentence in this case to the court of appeal as possibly unduly lenient.”

South Yorkshire police declined to comment.

Only last month, a report by the constabulary, Crown Prosecution Service and probation inspectorates described disability-related hostility as “the hate crime that has been left behind” by the criminal justice system.

The report, Living in a Different World, found that just seven out of 810 cases that were “flagged” as disability hate crimes by the CPS ended with magistrates or judges increasing the sentence under section 146.

3 April 2013

Share this post:

Share on X (Twitter)Share on FacebookShare on WhatsAppShare on RedditShare on LinkedIn
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Related

‘Muddled’ blue badge reforms ‘are to blame for renewal delays’
6th February 2015
UN debate will be reminder of true inclusive education
6th February 2015
IDS breaks pledge on PIP waiting-times, as tens of thousands still queue for months
30th January 2015

Primary Sidebar

On the left of the image are multiple heads of different colours - white, aqua, red, light brown, and dark green - all grouped together, then the words ‘Campaign for Disability Justice. Sign up to support. #OpportunitySecurityRespect’
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Access

Latest Stories

Disabled MP who quit government over benefit cuts tells DNS: ‘The consequences will be devastating’

Disabled peers plan to ‘amend, amend, amend, amend, amend’ after assisted dying bill reaches Lords

Minister finally admits that working-age benefits spending is stable, despite months of ‘spiralling’ claims

This bill opens the door to scandal, abuse and injustice, disabled activists say after assisted dying bill vote

Timms says cuts must go ahead, despite being reminded of risk that disabled claimants could die

Absence of disabled people’s voices from assisted dying bill has been ‘astonishing’, says disabled MP

Timms misleads MPs on DWP transparency and cover-ups, as he gives evidence on PIP review

Ministers are considering further extension to disability hate crime laws, after pledge on ‘aggravated’ offences

Making all self-driving pilot schemes accessible would be ‘counter-productive’ and slow us down, says minister

Involve disabled people ‘meaningfully’ from the start when developing digital assistive tech, says report

Advice and Information

Readspeaker
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Footer

The International Standard Serial Number for Disability News Service is: ISSN 2398-8924

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site map
  • Bluesky
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Threads
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2025 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web