CPS Wessex: Successful Hate Crime Cases April 2024

Prosecutors from CPS Wessex routinely secure successful outcomes in a variety of hate crime cases across the Magistrates’ and Crown Courts in Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, and Wiltshire.

Under hate crime legislation, courts must pass an increased sentence where the prosecutor has evidenced that criminal offences either demonstrate, or have been motivated by, hostility towards a person’s race, religion, disability, transgender identity, or sexuality.

This is known as a “sentence uplift”.

We’ve picked out a selection of the hate crime cases we’ve prosecuted recently to demonstrate how seriously we take such cases, ensuring that perpetrators are brought to justice and receive increased penalties.

In most hate crime cases prosecuted by CPS Wessex, defendants enter guilty pleas.

This means that the case didn’t have to go to trial and victims and witnesses did not need to attend court to give evidence.

All defendants in our case studies below received an increased sentence to reflect the seriousness of the hate crime they had committed.

Case Studies

At Southampton Magistrates’ Court last month, a man pleaded guilty to using language towards the victim that was both homophobic and showed a prejudice towards people with a disability. He also admitted causing damage to the victim’s property.

At court he was sentenced to a 12-month community order and required to complete 20 days of a rehabilitation activity. He was fined £100 for the public order offence. He would have been fined £40, but the court increased the fine by £30 because homophobic language had been used, and again by a further £30 for language that showed a prejudice towards people with a disability. He was also ordered to pay £112 victim surcharge, £85 court costs, and a restraining order was put in place preventing him from having contact with the victim for two years.

In a case heard at Swindon Magistrates’ Court, a man pleaded guilty to homophobically abusing a police officer, whilst she was dealing with him for another matter. He was fined £440 for using homophobic words towards the officer, and the court increased the fine to a higher band to reflect the severity of the language used. He was also ordered to pay £176 victim surcharge and £85 court costs. 

In a case prosecuted at Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court, a male admitted a racially aggravated public order offence, having racially abused the victim whilst they were working in their shop. The court fined the male £500 for using racist language towards the victim, increasing the fine to a higher category, because it was a hate crime. He was also ordered to pay £200 victim surcharge. 

In a similar case at Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court last month, a man pleaded guilty to two incidents of shoplifting and a racially aggravated public order offence, having racially abused a shop worker who tried to stop him from stealing from the store. 

The court sentenced the man to four weeks in prison, which they increased from three weeks under the sentence uplift scheme, to reflect the severity of language used towards the victim and the fact it was a hate crime. The custodial sentence was suspended for 12-months. The man was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £152 along with £10 compensation to the store and £40 court costs. 

In a similar case again heard at Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court, a female pleaded guilty to three racially aggravated public order offences, having used racist language towards three victims whilst they were working in a shop. 

On sentencing, the court ordered her to pay a total of £240 in compensation to the victims of the hate crime. The court increased the compensation from £180 to £240 to reflect the racist language used.

At Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court last month, a male was sentenced to 16 weeks in prison having pleaded guilty to assaulting the victim, a taxi driver, by punching them several times. 

The court said that they would have sentenced the male to eight weeks in prison however they increased the sentence to 16 weeks because it was a racially aggravated assault. The custodial sentence was suspended for 12-months. He was also ordered to pay the victim £500 in compensation as well as completing 20 days of a rehabilitation activity requirement.  

In a case heard at Poole Magistrates’ Court in March, a woman pleaded guilty to three racially aggravated public order offences, that she had committed against the same victim on three separate occasions.

The court fined her £300 for the offences, and said they increased the fine by £84 to reflect the racist language used against the victim. She was ordered to pay £500 in compensation to the victim, £85 court costs and a restraining order was put in place for two years preventing future contact with the victim. 

Finally, at Salisbury Magistrates’ Court, a man pleaded guilty to a racially aggravated harassment, having sent the victim a series of racist messages via social media. The court fined the male £340 for harassing the victim and increased the fine by £120 to reflect the racist language used towards the victim and the fact it was a hate crime. He was also ordered to pay £128 victim surcharge.