Letter: Criminal thoughts

Mens rea is not the same as motive, but motive certainly can be taken into account in sentencing. The laws on hate crime, which are about sentencing, not guilt, are just one example of that.

In answer to Rev Anderson (Letters, same day), I have no idea of the details of the cases of the three murderers he mentioned. I hope that in each case the judge took all the known circumstances into account in deciding sentence. And that is exactly what the hate crime legislation says should happen.

In answer to both, hate crime law does not favour some groups over others. It is not concerned with the race, sexual orientation etc of the victim, but with the motive of the attacker. A crime against a minority ethnic person is not a hate crime; a crime with racist motive, whatever the race of the victim, is a hate crime.

Anyone can be the victim of a hate crime, and the hate crime law applies for all victims equally, regardless of their race, sexual orientation or other qualities. That's equality - which we at the Equality Network are proud to promote.

Perhaps I can also point out to Rev Anderson, who seems to have a bee in his bonnet about homosexuality, that a moment's thought should be enough for him to realise that the large majority of the victims of the more than 5,000 hate crimes per year in Scotland are heterosexual.

Tim Hopkins

Equality Network

Bernard Street

Edinburgh

To correct Tim Hopkins of the Equality Network (Letters, 2 October), I did not say that claiming gay sex to be immoral amounted to a hate crime, but that the current hate crime legislation is a only a short step away from making it so.

The current law states that, "for the avoidance of doubt, criticising same-sex conduct or urging people to refrain from such conduct is not, in itself, a crime", but many object to the addition of this clarification, including a certain Mr Ed Miliband, who is "angry" that this clause is included.

Surely an "Equality Network" should want identical crimes treated equally. Hate crime legislation may curry favour with some minority campaigning groups, but riles large sections of the wider community, undermining good relations between sections of society.

Is it really acceptable that the police could say: "I'm very sorry that you were assaulted and robbed on your 80th birthday, Mrs Smith, but I'm sure you will understand that, although you are now disabled after the attack, you were not before, and there have been several attacks recently which may have had a homophobic element, so your case is not really a top priority at the moment"?

Richard Lucas

Cowan Road

Edinburgh