Background to the Inquiry
In 2009, the Commission conducted research into the safety and security of disabled people. The full research is available here, within the Fairer Britain area of the site.
The research findings included:
- Disabled people are at greater risk of experiencing violence than non-disabled people.
- Disabled children and young people and disabled women, particularly those with learning disabilities, are particularly at risk.
- Ongoing low-level incidents are widespread and may go undetected but may escalate at some point. These incidents are often ignored by public agencies even though they have a significant impact on disabled people.
- Disabled people restructure their lives to minimise real and perceived risk to themselves even if they have not experienced targeted violence personally.
The Commission concluded that the emphasis on help and protection underpinning much of existing policy and legislation should be replaced by a focus on justice and redress. When the Commission published this research, in April 2009, we made a commitment to look at what actions public authorities were taking to eliminate disability related harassment and its causes. It was this commitment that led us to announcing our intention to conduct a formal inquiry.
About the Inquiry
Formal Inquiry into the actions of public authorities to eliminate disability-related harassment and its causes
On 3 December 2009, International Day of Disabled People, the Commission announced its intention to conduct a formal Inquiry into the actions of public authorities to eliminate disability-related harassment and its causes.
The Commission's Inquiry powers enable us to compile evidence, call witnesses and make recommendations against which we expect action to follow.The Equality Act stipulates that we have to have terms of reference for formal Inquiries.
The terms of reference tell us what the Inquiry is allowed to hear evidence about so it is important we get them right. We consulted with disabled people and other stakeholders on the terms of reference for the Inquiry and, following an analysis of the responses, published thefinal terms of referenceonline.
Updates
- On 12 September 2011 we launched'Hidden in plain sight' the inquiry's final report.
- Since April 2011, we have been busy conducting follow on interviews and analysing the wealth of evidence we have received into the Inquiry. We are currently drafting the final report, which is due to be published onMonday 12 September 2011.
- In April 2011, we concluded the individual focus group work with disabled people from a variety of backgrounds, including BME disabled people, LGB disabled people, young and older disabled people.
- In March 2011 we met with media regulators to discuss issues surrounding the portrayal of disabled people by the media.
- In February 2011 we heard evidence from both internet regulators and providers on the topic of cyber-bullying.
- In January 2011 we met with some of the families, friends and survivors of disability-related harassment to learn from their experiences and to discuss recommendations aimed at tackling disability-related harassment effectively.
- During winter 2010/11, the Inquiry team held over 72 interviews, 54 hearings with public authorities and transport operators and 12 meetings with disabled people and their organisations across England, Scotland and Wales.
- The call for evidence stage of the Inquiry closed on 17 September 2010 following an overwhelming response from individuals and organisations through our website, email, telephone and from face-to-face interviews.
10 Cases
As part of this inquiry we examined 10 very serious cases in which disabled people have died or been seriously injured. These cases show beyond doubt that the experiences of Fiona Pilkington and her children were not a one-off. In many other locations and circumstances, the appalling abuse of disabled people has been greeted with disbelief, ignored or mishandled by the authorities, with tragic consequences.
· Case two: 'The case of the vulnerable adult'
· Case five: Christopher Foulkes
Please click on the link to find out about the enquiry
Guardian, 12 September 2011
People with disabilities in the UK face harassment, insult and attack almost as a matter of routine, while a "collective denial" among police, government and other public bodies means little is done to challenge the situation, the government's human rights watchdog has concluded following a major investigation.
The report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the most detailed study yet into abuse faced by disabled people, found that while some particularly serious offences attracted national attention, these are "the tip of the iceberg", and that for many, low-level criminality or worse are so endemic that many consider them inevitable.
Too often, the report found, victims see their complaints doubted, or they are advised to change their own behaviour. Even in the most serious cases, public organisations involved often fail to review what went wrong.
The issue achieved national prominence in 2009, when an inquest found police and other officials had failed Fiona Pilkington, who killed herself and her severely disabled teenage daughter in a burning car after enduring years of torment from youths at their home in Leicestershire. A report in June by the charity Mencapwarned many police forces were failing to treat crimes motivated bydisabilitywith sufficient seriousness.
The EHRC report reviewed dozens of attacks against people with both physical and mental disabilities, ranging from the most serious cases, such as those of the Pilkingtons and Keith Philpott, a 36-year-old with learning disabilities who was beaten and stabbed to death, to that of an 88-year-old man in south Wales who was harassed by children while using a mobility scooter. The study, Hidden in Plain Sight, heard evidence from more than 350 witnesses and organisations, including 12 local authority heads, 15 senior police officers, and six NHS chief executives.
The study considered in detail 10 particularly serious cases, nine of which resulted in the death of the person involved, including the Philpott case. All victims had been in contact with authorities and the majority had made earlier reports of harassment or lower-level crimes. Despite this, in five of the cases there was no formal review, the report noted, "Implying that lessons have not been learnt for the future".
Michael Smith, the EHRC's lead commissioner for the inquiry, said even as a wheelchair user who had himself faced abuse – and police scepticism – nothing had prepared him for "the horrendous things some disabled people have experienced".
In an introduction to the report, he said: "In the worst cases, people were tortured. And apparently just for fun. It's as though the perpetrators didn't think of their victims as human beings. It's hard to see the difference between what they did, and baiting dogs.
"The really serious cases catch the headlines. But what about the constant drip, drip, nag, nag of the so-called 'low-level' harassment that many disabled people face on a daily basis? It ruins their lives. They don't have the confidence to go out. It undermines their ability to be part of society. It makes them behave differently."
Echoing the findings of the Mencap report, the EHRC said many disabled people did not report harassment, sometimes because it was not clear who they should tell but often because of a "culture of disbelief" that meant they were not treated seriously. "There is sometimes a focus on the victim's behaviour and 'vulnerability' rather than dealing with the perpetrators," the report noted.
The authors said there had been a systemic failure by authorities to acknowledge the extent of the problem and deal with it effectively. Cases tended to be treated in isolation and offences were too rarely prosecuted as hate crimes, which carry more severe penalties. The EHRC made recommendations ranging from the specific – reliable data to track the extent and severity of crimes motivated by disability – to significantly longer-term aspirations, such as changing public perceptions of disabled people and understanding the motivations of the attackers.
Mencap said the report showed the UK had "still not got to grips" with the issue. "Public authorities need to step up to tackle this terrible scourge, or end up condemning hundreds of thousands of disabled people to years of violence, harassment and abuse," the charity's head of policy, David Congdon, said.
The 10 cases
The EHRC highlighted 10 particularly serious cases of crimes against people with various disabilities, only five of which led to formal reviews:
•David Askew: died last year from a heart attack in the garden of his home after more than a decade of harassment.
•Keith Philpott: murdered in 2005 by two men who believed, wrongly, he had a sexual relationship with one of their sisters. Eight months before the killing, Philpott told police members of the family had threatened him.
•He Shaowei: found dead behind a Chinese takeaway in 2006, with her body showing signs of long-standing torture. After her death it emerged that council officials and neighbours had seen her with facial injuries but did nothing.
•Christopher Foulkes: found dead in his flat in 2007 after being beaten by a teenage boy. Foulkes had complained to social services that the boy had been stealing from him. A care worker witnessed the teenager trying to break down the flat door but took no action.
•Colin Greenwood: died in 2007 after a brutal assault by two teenage boys. His partner had made several complaints about being harassed.
•Steven Hoskin: his body, marked by the signs of appalling torture, was found at the bottom of a railing viaduct in 2006. Police, social services and other agencies had been warned he was potentially at risk but did not share information.
•Laura Milne: she was beaten by her flatmates before having her throat cut in 2007. Milne had been monitored by social services, but her case was closed the month before her death due to "lack of engagement".
•Michael Gilbert: his dismembered body was found in 2009, after some years living with a family who tortured him and treated him as a slave. Police were told several times that Gilbert had been assaulted and abducted by the family.
•Brent Martin: beaten to death by three men in 2007, weeks after he had been discharged from psychiatric care, where he had been since a teenager.
• Woman aged 30, who has not been named: in 2002 she was admitted to hospital suffering the effects of repeated physical and sexual attacks carried out by men including her carer.
Please click on the link to see the original article
Disability hate crime is our shame
guardian.co.uk, 12 September 2011
As disability benefits are attacked, police investigations into crimes against disabled people are permeated by doubt – we must act
A report by the government's Equality and Human Rights Commission(EHRC) into disability hate crime highlights 10 cases in which disabled people faced severe abuse, nine of which resulted in the abused person's death. All of the victims involved complained to the police or social services in the months leading up to their death and yet in five of the cases there wasn't even a formal review into any potential failures by the authorities.
Reading this report, I thought that disabled people would need aStephen Lawrence or Baby P case before the public demanded action. Then I realised that we already had one: the 2009 case of Michael Gilbert shocked many, and still little has changed. Gilbert, who had learning difficulties, was tortured and treated like a slave before his murder, while police missed three opportunities to intervene.
Yet it is disabled people's very vulnerability that is allowing the authorities to escape each death without being subjected to public shame. While it can try and raise awareness of hate crime, the disabled community is highly fractured, often relying on the internet to bring together socially isolated individuals. The most vulnerable are trapped in houses, care homes or hospitals, making it much harder to literally gain visibility in the wider community. It is unsurprising therefore that a report by Scope in September 2010 found that 40% of people did not know a disabled person at all. And yet for disabled crime to really be taken seriously by the authorities it needs the wider public to hold them to account.
Worryingly, public opinion has rapidly turned against disabled people in the last year. Another survey by Scope this month found that 66% of disabled people had experienced aggression or hostility in the last year, up from 41% in May this year. This means that in just four short months hostility towards disabled people has increased by over 50%. In addition, almost half of those interviewed found that attitudes towards them have worsened since last year. It cannot be coincidental that this corresponds with a concerted attack on disability benefits by the coalition government which has been widely supported in most mainstream media.
Leaving aside the debate on whether the focus on disabled people's benefits is, indeed, fair, what is clear is that the monthly press releases by the Department for Work and Pensions about how many people it has removed from the disability benefit employment support allowance have distorted the perception of disabled people into one of pure economic contribution only – making it acceptable for society to be sceptical about how truly "disabled" such people really are. Such doubt seems to permeate the investigation of hate crimes, as the report highlights police scepticism and a culture of disbelief as reasons which prevented disabled people seeking justice for the crimes against them.
This EHRC report goes some way to highlighting the scale of the problem we face, but action must now be taken. We have already seen separate inquiries by the Independent Police Complaints Commission into the cases of Fiona Pilkington and Michael Gilbert, which both found the police response to be flawed. Yet in light of the breadth of abuse against disabled people it is now time for a nationwide review to examine police practices in investigating disabled hate crime, and the role social services and health professionals play in its perpetuation.
We urgently need to rethink how we involve and promote disabled people in society and ask very hard questions of ourselves as to whether we can all do more, the government included, to ensure that disabled people are treated with the same dignity and respect that we all demand. With the current widespread animosity towards disabled people, it is shocking but shouldn't be surprising that the perpetrators of some of the most extreme crimes against disabled people, "didn't think of their victims as human beings".