Scotland sees huge increase in reported homophobic hate crime

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The number of reported homophobic hate crimes has risen five-fold in Scotland in the last five years.

Figures show that there were 666 reported incidents in 2009-10, a substantial increase from 2004-5, when just 114 incidents were reported.

According to the Herald, numbers doubled in the last two years, as 364 incidents were reported in 2007-8.

The figures were revealed through a Freedom of Information Act request and detail violent attacks, vandalism, abuse and indecent assaults.

Stonewall Scotland says that the majority of LGBT Scottish people have suffered hate crime.

Figures from the charity’s 2010 Community Safety Survey show that two-thirds of LGBT people have been verbally abused while a third have been physically attacked.

However, 61 per cent of those physically attacked did not tell police and a quarter of those who suffered verbal abuse said they would not report it as it is a “part of life” in Scotland.

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