New offence recognising hate crime against elderly under consideration

Lord Bracadale
Credit: Scottish Parliamentary Office

His announcement comes in the wake of Lord Bracadale’s review into hate crime laws, in which the retired judge recommended new statutory provisions for courts to recognise crimes against vulnerable people.

He recommended that offences against the elderly should be treated as hate crime where it can be demonstrated the offender was motivated by hostility based on age.

“I have looked at Lord Bracadale’s recommendation,” Mr Yousaf said.

“As far as I know we could be one of the first jurisdictions in the world to have an aggravation on age, making sure we stand up for the elderly and vulnerable and for the dreadful way they are targeted by some.”

He told the Sunday Post: “Obviously I am a victim, numerous times over of hate crime and I am trying to bring my own experience to this role.

“Unfortunately as a constituency MSP you hear more and more cases of people being scammed, exploited and defrauded because of their age and I am very open to looking at this.”

Lesley Carcary, director of Action on Elder Abuse Scotland, said: “Currently, the decision to apply a tougher sentence in cases involving older victims is at the discretion of the judge. That’s not good enough.

“What our older people and their families need is the reassurance that criminals who prey on them will receive a punishment that fits the crime. That reassurance must come in the form of a statutory aggravated offence to ensure consistency in our justice system.”