Medal winner is hate crime target

Police say disabled people are often reluctant to report crimes against them

A disabled sportswoman from North Yorkshire has revealed she came close to committing suicide after becoming the target of hate crime.

Table tennis player Di Lofthouse, 45, who won a gold medal for Britain at the Special Olympics in 1989, says she was targeted because of her disability.

Threatening letters and dog faeces were put through her letterbox and windows were broken at her home in Harrogate.

"I was suicidal," she told a conference on hate crime in the town on Monday.

Miss Lofthouse, who is partially sighted and has mild learning disabilities, said her tormentors also strung fishing line across her gate to trip her up and eventually caused her to suffer depression which led to the break-up of her marriage.

I wanted to die because nobody was offering me a way out Di Lofthouse, victim of hate crime

"We had a letter put through our letterbox saying people like us should be put down at birth," she said.

"We had our windows put through and it got to the point where I couldn't sleep at night. I used to sleep in the day when they weren't around.

"In those days I found it very difficult to report these crimes when they happened because no one seemed to want to listen.

"I wanted to die because nobody was offering me a way out.

"Now, with knowledge of the Crown Prosecution Service and the police and the way they now listen, care about, and support victims, I would have no hesitation in reporting hate crime."

She was asked to address a conference on hate crime organised by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in North Yorkshire.

Rob Turnbull, chief crown prosecutor for the county, said: "Last year I prosecuted 99 people for hate-related crime.

"We believe that the offences reported are only a small proportion of the actual number of incidents in the county.

"These people are being targeted in their own communities and this sort of offending is something we don't want to tolerate in North Yorkshire."