CPS West Midlands: Successful Hate crime Cases – December 2024
In December 2024, the CPS West Midlands Magistrates’ and Crown court units successfully prosecuted various hate crime cases. Below are some of the cases.
On 5 July 2024, the 21-year-old defendant from Neath Port Talbot directed homophobic abuse towards a police officer who was attempting to arrest him for an unrelated matter. On 4 December 2024, he admitted using offensive words or behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress. He was sentenced to an 18-month community order with unpaid work hours which was increased from 180 to 200 hours to reflect the hate crime element.
On 28 September 2024, the 44-year-old defendant from London, was present on a train travelling to St Alban’s when he racially abused a passenger and then spat in the victim’s face. The defendant was charged with a racially aggravated common assault offence. He appeared before Highbury Magistrates’ Court on 9 December where he pleaded guilty to the offence. He was sentenced on the same day to a suspended sentence. The operational period of which was increased from 6 weeks to 8 weeks to reflect the hate crime element. He was also ordered to pay compensation to the complainant.
On 4 March 2024, the 34-year-old defendant from Newcastle-under-Lyme, was being treated in a hospital when he racially abused and threatened a doctor. He was subsequently charged with one offence of racially aggravated common assault and appeared before North Staffordshire Justice Centre on 5 December 2024. He pleaded guilty to the offence and was sentenced to a 12-month conditional discharge which was uplifted from a six-month discharge to reflect the hate crime element. He was also ordered to pay compensation to the complainant.
On 17 July 2023, the 62-year-old-defendant from Birmingham, was racially abusive towards his neighbour. Then on 15 October 2023, the defendant was again racially abusive towards the same victim and made threats to assault them. The defendant was charged with a racially aggravated Public Order Act offence and a racially aggravated common assault offence. The defendant entered no guilty pleas to both offences, but when the trial was due to be heard at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court on 6 December 2024, he pleaded guilty to both offences and was sentenced to an 18-month community order, which was uplifted from a 1 2-month operational period to reflect the hate crime element. He was ordered to pay compensation to the victim.
On 9 November 2024, the 29-year-old defendant from Birmingham, walked past a nightclub where he made threats with a bladed article to the security guard and directed racial abuse while making these threats. The defendant was charged with numerous offences included a racially aggravated Public Order Act offence. He pleaded guilty to all offence, and on 9 December 2024 at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court, he was sentenced to a suspended sentence where the operation period was increased from 12-months to 24-months to reflect the hate crime element. He was also ordered to pay compensation to the victim.
A 37-year-old defendant from the Birmingham area was reported to the police for robbery at a local Tesco store. The defendant racially abused a Tesco employee who had witnessed the offence taking place and tried to challenge the defendant. He pleaded guilty to the robbery, attempted robbery and racially aggravated intentional harassment and he received a 32-month custodial sentence which runs consecutively with other offences on 3 December 2024.
On 18 June 2024, police attended to a domestic report where a 32-year-old male was reported to have seriously assaulted a female. During the arrest, the defendant racially abused the police. He pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding and two counts of religiously aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress. He received a two-year sentence for assaulting the female which was uplifted and passed the custody threshold due to the racially aggravated element of the offence.
On 5 May 2024, the police attended to a report of a male being abusive towards a female. While in custody, the 27-year-old male made homophobic remarks to one of the custody officers. He pleaded guilty to the offence and received seven months imprisonment suspended for 18 months which was uplifted with a one-month consecutive sentence due to the homophobic element of the offence.