Hate crime victim sentenced after local services fail to deal with racial harassment
Loyan Ali outside Northampton Magistrates Court after receiving his sentence
Local resident Mr Loyan Ali endured fourteen months of racial incidents at Harlestone Road Allotments. He reported these to both the police and the borough council but no action was taken against any of the perpetrators. Today, Mr Ali was sentenced to a conditional discharge and ordered to pay £350 costs and £15 victims surcharge after a counter allegation was made by hate incident perpetrators.
The incidents stretched over April 2014 to November 2014 and included multiple incidents of racial abuse and threats to beat up Mr Ali in front of his wife and his children. It also included reports of the destruction of allotment produce and the killing of poultry kept on the allotment.
Northamptonshire Rights and Equality Council has been working with Mr Ali to try to get the Borough Council which manages the allotments through their contractor enterprise and the Police to resolve the harassment that Mr Ali was facing.
Anjona Roy, Chief Executive stated,
“Mr Ali faced difficulties even reporting incidents as the Borough Council one stop shop failed to record his initial reports. After a later incident of harassment one Northants Police officer told him that the reason he was experiencing harassment was because he was making reports and that he should stop reporting incidents.
We feel that Mr Ali has been very badly let down by the system in respect of decisions made by Northamptonshire Police and Northampton Borough Council, who manage the contract for allotment management with Enterprise. These organisations failed to adequately deal with Mr Ali’s Hate Crime and anti-social behaviour reports and the Crown Prosecution Service also failed to adequately consider the five previous reports Mr Ali made to the police between April and August of 2014. Mr Ali tried to resolve issues using reporting structures and when reports weren’t dealt with he did make a number of formal complaints about the lack of support he got as a victim. Mr Ali even expressed willingness to attend round table discussions and mediation to resolve the issues but Northamptonshire Police and Northampton Borough Council having arranged this cancelled it at the eleventh hour and failed to re-arrange this.
This situation has been aggravated by that lack of specialist expertise in Northants police following the closure of the Hate Crime Unit and the non- functioning of hate crime structures following the closure. “
Mr Ali gave up the allotment in Harlestone Road in November 2014 as a result of the racism he faced. He has been prosecuted under section 4 of the Public Order Act and today has been sentenced to a conditional discharge and ordered to pay £350 contribution to court courts and a £15 victim surcharge. He plans to appeal the conviction.
Mr Ali commented
“As a result of my experiences my self worth and self esteem has been badly damaged and the trust I had in the justice system has been eroded. I have been unfairly treated by the court, the police and the Borough Council.”
Northamptonshire Rights and Equality Council has set up a fundraising page to assist Mr Ali with the costs that he now faces as an act of solidarity. People who wish to donate should visit
Northamptonshire Rights and Equality Council 