A Glasgow woman with Down's syndrome who was spat at on her way to the train station has spoken out about her experience in a bid to raise awareness of disability-related hate crimes.
In 2018, Sam Ross was approached by a man on her way home from work who proceeded to spit in her eye and walk away.
The 33-year-old reported the incident to police but wasn't aware that it would be treated as a hate crime.
She's now encouraging the “hidden” victims of crime – people affected by offences that are underreported and don’t often make the headlines - to speak out.
Sam explained: “I was just coming home from work, listening to my music and this old guy came up to me and spat in my face.
“Maybe he thought I looked different."
She went immediately to find a friend of hers who worked at the station to call the police.
Officers were in no doubt that this was a hate crime and were “sickened” by it, according to Sam’s father Tam. He describes the support they gave the family as “excellent”.
But police couldn’t find the incident on CCTV, perhaps because at the time, in 2018, there was building work going on nearby. There were no witnesses. With little to go on, the culprit was never found.
In the years since, Sam has carried on working in the city and going out for drinks with her friends at the weekend.
But it made her realise something important: that incidents such as this are criminal offences.
“We didn’t know it was a crime,” says Sam.
Tam adds: “I’ve not led a sheltered life but before it happened I would never have said that was a crime.”
That changed for both of them in the aftermath of the attack. Tam was beyond furious about it. He says: “That’s when I realised it’s a crime, doing that to vulnerable people. To anybody. The worst thing possible is spitting in someone’s face.
“When it happened I said, I wish I could have got the guy. My wife said, I wish you couldn’t have.”
Disability-related hate crime is an offence that has a relatively low profile, because it’s less well-recognised than other types of hate crime. As a result, its victims go largely unseen.
Now a new campaign aims to highlight the experience of these “hidden” victims of crime – people affected by offences that are underreported and don’t often make the headlines.
Victim Support Scotland (VSS), which is behind the campaign, wants to ensure that those affected reach out for the support they are entitled to.
Kate Wallace, chief executive of VSS, says: “Our chosen theme for Victims Awareness Week 2022 was developed to tell the stories of people from diverse backgrounds who have come through crime and whose needs are not being met by services or the justice system.
“A campaign such as this has never been more needed. With every crime reported, there are many that go unreported, and therefore victims who cope with the aftermath of crime without support. We hope this campaign may give people the confidence to come forward and receive support, regardless of whether the crime has been reported to the police.
“Often, people who have come through crime feel invisible in the justice system – and this feeling can multiply if they are also from a more diverse background.”
The campaign aims to reach out to anyone who feels unseen as a victim of crime.
Examples include male victims of stalking and refugees subjected to hate crime for being part of the LGBT+ community.
Hate crimes are an area of particular concern. A hate crime is any crime motivated by malice towards someone on the basis of their disability, sexuality, race, religion or transgender status.
Disability-related hate crimes are thought to be much more prevalent than the official statistics suggest. According to Police Scotland, “there is strong evidence to suggest this type of offence is significantly under reported”.
Although one in five people in Scotland are registered as having a disability, Scottish Government statistics show that only four per cent of hate crimes reported in 2019/20 were disability-related, though reporting rates are increasing.
Three-fifths of reported cases were motivated by prejudice against someone with a learning disability.
VSS is concerned about the low level of reporting and believes there could be several reasons for it.
“People assume that a hate crime has to be racial or to do with sexual orientation, so people being targeted for other reasons like disability may not see themselves as victims of crime,” explains Mike Findlay, VSS head of communications.
The person may, unfortunately, believe that hateful attacks are just part of life, especially if they have experienced a lot of abuse in the past. They may not realise, as Sam Ross didn’t, that what they’ve experienced reaches the threshold to be considered a crime. Or they may feel uncomfortable about approaching the police, perhaps because they are unsure if the incident will be taken seriously (Police Scotland aims to reassure victims of this crime that they take it very seriously).
Since her own experience of hate crime, Sam has become involved in a campaign run by Police Scotland to encourage disabled people to come forward and report hate crimes.
She is resolute about it: “If something like that happens, you should report it right away,” she says. “It’s not just people with Down’s syndrome, it could happen to anyone in the world.”
