North’s disabled to get hate crime protection

ATTACKS against disabled people are to be scrutinised as part of a British government offensive on escalating hate crime in the North.

With rising levels of racist and homophobic assaults already recorded, criminal justice minister John Spellar pledged to include other victims in a new strategy for fighting the menace.

Mr Spellar said: “This policy will introduce the monitoring and recording of sectarian incidents and incidents against persons with disabilities.”