In January a woman and her brother were jailed for life for after starving, beating and torturing Andrew Gardner,a 35 year old man with learning disabilities before murdering him in March 2008.
This is not an isolated incident; Franecca Hardwick suffered years of abuse from neighbours before taking her own life. Steven Hoskins was bullied and abused for months before being made to overdose on paracetamol and forced off a bridge. Kevin Davies was beaten, starved, robbed and imprisoned in a shed; he died in 2006 as a result of this treatment. Christine Lakinski collapsed outside her home. Her neighbour threw a bucket of water on her. When she did not wake up he urinated on her and covered her with shaving foam. He filmed this on his mobile phone while other people watched and laughed. Christine was dying and nobody helped her. (information from Mencap website)
These are hate crimes, against people with learning disabilities for being different, but they were not prosecuted as hate crimes.
Earlier this month Mencap hosted a conference which focused on way to tackle these types of hate crimes, which was attended by members of the police force, magistrates, policy makers and disability rights campaigners.
Abuse and discrimination against people with any disabilities, including learning disabilities, is an area that is not widely reported at the moment. However there is an increasing focus on this area from support providers, charities and other advocates.
Check out the Mencap website for more information on their campaign against disability hate crimes.
