Religious hate crime ‘hits four-year high’

RELIGIOUS hate crime has reached a four-year high in Scotland, with Catholics being targeted in more than half of all cases, official figures have shown.

There were 693 charges aggravated by religious prejudice in 2010-2011. The bulk of them of them occurred in the west of Scotland, a traditional hotbed of sectarian trouble, but only a third happened at football grounds.

Anti-Catholic offences accounted for 58 per cent of all cases, with 37 per cent involving anti-Protestant abuse. The most common target was police officers, who were involved in 42 per cent of the charges reported.

The figures were published after a pledge by First Minister Alex Salmond to provide greater analysis in light of new legislation aimed at cracking down on sectarianism in football.

The Catholic Bishop of Paisley Philip Tartaglia said: “Since Catholics represent just 16 per cent of Scotland’s population, the fact that they account for almost 60 per cent of the victims of sectarian crime reflects poorly on modern Scotland and is an indicator of entrenched hostility on a worrying scale.

“It remains the case that the overwhelming majority of sectarian incidents are not football-related. Therefore, far more engagement is needed with the church in future by all public authorities committed to the eradication of religious intolerance.”

Almost all the cases involved men, with the bulk (58 per cent) of them in the 16-30 age group.

Of the 231 offences at football matches, there were 47 (52 per cent) at Celtic Park and 24 (27 per cent) at Ibrox. A spokesman for Celtic said only 14 of its cases involved home fans, all of whom were banned. The rest were away supporters.

The sum of 693 charges last year is 10 per cent up on the previous annual figure. Rangers manager Ally McCoist, said: “I think the figures are up because there has been a bigger clamp down.”

Community safety minister Roseanna Cunningham said: “These statistics show the shameful reality of religious hate crime in Scotland. Like racism, this kind of behaviour simply shouldn’t be happening in a modern Scotland but sadly, it seems there are still those who think hatred on the basis of religion is acceptable.”

Of the 693 charges reported by police to the Crown Office and procurator fiscal service, 587 charges were taken to court, with 390 leading to convictions.

Dave Scott, campaign director of anti-sectarianism charity Nil By Mouth, said this was the highest number of convictions since the offence of religious aggravation was introduced.

“It’s clear we need a real nationwide debate on how we tackle sectarianism and its root causes. It goes beyond our football terraces,” he said.

The Scottish Government’s proposals have been criticised by opposition parties amid confusion over the kind of behaviour that would be outlawed. Labour’s justice spokesman James Kelly said: “The fact that the vast majority – 88 per cent of all offences – were recorded away from football stadiums exposes the SNP’s naïve and dogmatic belief that sectarianism is solely a football problem.”