the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues
The police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) are facing questions over why an “utterly barbaric” campaign of violence and abuse directed at a disabled mum and daughter was not treated as disability hate crime. A family of four were jailed last […]
The Home Office has been unable to explain why the number of disability hate crime cases referred to prosecutors by the police plunged last year by nearly a quarter, and why successful prosecutions of such offences fell even more sharply. In […]
Academics have called for a new hate crime act and other key legal reforms to address the “huge justice gap” that affects victims of disability hate crime, following a major two-year study. Researchers at the University of Sussex, led by Dr […]
The head of the judiciary has blamed the parliamentary logjam caused by Brexit for preventing the introduction of vital new laws that would make it easier for disability hate crime to be punished with stricter sentences. The Lord Chief Justice, Lord […]
The number of disability hate crimes recorded by the police rose by more than 50 per cent last year, according to new figures released by the Home Office. The rise in recorded disability hate crimes (53 per cent) was larger than […]
The failure of the criminal justice system to recognise and punish disability hate crime has been highlighted yet again, after nine members of the same family were jailed for modern slavery and fraud offences spanning more than 25 years. Members of […]
Two people involved in the brutal murder of a disabled man who was imprisoned and tortured to death have had their sentences increased by the court of appeal. Julie Mills and Nicole Lawrence were originally sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court last […]
The aunt of a disabled man who was imprisoned and tortured to death is asking the attorney general to appeal against the judge’s failure to treat his murder as a disability hate crime. James Wheatley, 29, from Kenton Bar, Newcastle, repeatedly […]
A police force has launched an internal review of its treatment of disabled people, after it was forced to refer two separate incidents involving young autistic men to the police watchdog. One case referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) […]
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has issued controversial new guidance on disability hate crime which could cut the number of successful prosecutions, after a senior government barrister concluded that the existing guidelines were unworkable. Disability News Service (DNS) understands that CPS […]