Working Together to Prosecute Hate Crime

I’m Lionel Idan, Chief Crown Prosecutor for London South and CPS Hate Crime Lead. In this blog, I'll be sharing recent news updates and my reflections on developments in the hate crime space.

Working in partnership to improve our response to hate crime

When I took up the role as national hate crime lead in July 2021, one of my priorities was to work in strong partnership with the police and community leads and groups, to improve the number of hate crime offenders brought to justice.

This strong partnership ethos formed the basis of a recent joint criminal justice national conference on hate crime in Newcastle, which I had the pleasure of leading jointly with the police. Representatives from key organisations led workshops and participated in a variety of sessions. The conference shone a particular spotlight on disability hate crime.

I was struck by the passion, commitment, knowledge, and dedication of so many in attendance from every corner of the country. Some of the joint working activities and good practice we learned about have already led to early improvements in bringing more hate crime offenders to justice.

I also had the pleasure of attending the recent Community Security Trust Annual dinner. There, the Home Secretary announced the formation of a new Jewish Community Police, Crime and Security taskforce to enhance efforts to combat anti-semitic hate crime.

A spotlight on transphobic hate crime

Our data shows that over 12,000 cases of hate crime were prosecuted in the year to September 2022. However, there is more to do to improve our joint criminal justice response to hate crime across all strands, and to better support all victims from the point of reporting a crime, to the conclusion of a prosecution.

In the year to September 2022, we prosecuted 100 cases of transphobic hate crime and in 83% of cases, the suspect was convicted of one or more crimes. While the number of transphobic hate crime prosecutions is not reflective of the full extent of hate crime reported by members of the community, in the vast majority of the cases referred to us by the police, we continue to charge the perpetrators. That's why I'd encourage anyone who has been a victim to come forward.

Like other strands of hate crime, transphobic hate crime not only has a devastating impact on victims, it has a wider impact on the rest of the community and on society. I recently invited our CPS Speak Out Champion, Sophie Cook, to one of our national hate crime coordinators’ meetings to help raise awareness of the nature and impact of transphobic hate crime.

Sophie shared her lived experience and helped to shed light on some of the barriers to reporting. She also discussed how the police and CPS can better assist in encouraging and supporting victims of transphobic hate crime to report more crimes, and in navigating the whole criminal justice process.

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