Crimes against disabled people reassessed after double death tragedy

A police force has changed the way it deals with disabled crime victims following the death of a woman and her handicapped daughter who were subjected to a catalogue of abuse, an inquest heard yesterday.

Teenage thugs drove Fiona Pilkington, 38, to despair after bombarding her family with verbal and physical abuse for more than 10 years.

The family made 33 calls for help to Leicestershire Police over seven years but officers failed to act because they felt Ms Pilkington was "over-reacting" to the abuse, the court heard.

It was only after the deaths of Ms Pilkington and her daughter, Francecca Hardwick, in October 2007 that it became the force's policy to class repeated crimes against disabled people as "hate offences", meaning that they were treated more seriously.

Until then, only offences against victims because of their race, religion, sexuality and gender were classed as hate crimes.

Yesterday, Chris Tew, retired Assistant Chief Constable of Leicestershire Police, told the inquest at Loughborough Town Hall that "a lot of changes have been made" since October 2007.

The inquest heard that Ms Pilkington was driven to such despair by the youths, some as young as 10, that she drove her car to a secluded lay-by and set it alight while she and her daughter sat inside.

Their bodies were found in the family's Austin Maestro on October 23, 2007.

Ms Pilkington and her 18-year-old daughter, known as Frankie, suffered more than 10 years of vile abuse and attacks from the 16-strong gang at their semi-detached 1930s council house in Bardon Road, Barwell, Leicestershire.

Her son, 19-year-old Anthony Hardwick, was locked in a shed at knifepoint and beaten with an iron bar, while the gang taunted his sister, who had developmental delay and the mental age of a four-year-old.