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Cllr Jonathan Simpson |
Warning that attacks on gay men are missed out in police statistics
OFFICIALLY – in terms of recorded crime – there have been no late night robberies of gay men on Hampstead Heath in recent weeks.
Unofficially, users of the Heath tell of gay men being beaten and robbed by small gangs who haunt the western cruising grounds,
perhaps gambling on the reluctance of their victims to come forward.
King’s Cross Councillor Jonathan Simpson said: “Camden is consistently one of the highest boroughs in London for homophobic crime and it is not good enough to say that we have good reporting structures – more should be done to prevent these crimes from happening in the first place.
“Making people aware that they are
putting themselves in danger when they go to the Heath in the evening to meet people is one.”
Camden has the
highest rate of homophobic crime in London, according to the most recently available figures, with 33 crimes recorded between May and July.
Detective Inspector Paul Clack leads the community safety unit. He said: “I haven’t got any intelligence or crime reports which suggest that robberies are occurring. That isn’t to say there’s not incidents that occur on the Heath – we encourage people to report, because while we recognise the obstacles that people might perceive, it is the only way in terms of trying to identify perpetrators and bring them to justice.”
Police will only take to the Heath at night if they are detecting or preventing serious crime, according to Nigel Harris, chairman of the Camden LGBT Forum.
Mr Harris said: “There have been some reports recently from people getting back into their cars being jumped from behind the trees.
“We offer a reporting service and some people just want to tell us [about incidents] without getting their names on a police report. We pass it on to the police, who record it as intelligence rather than a crime report.” |
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