Homophobia: Victim left waiting three years for police

Police have apologised to a victim after an investigation into graphic homophobic, sexual and violent threats took nearly three years to complete.

Joshua Beynon, 25, said Dyfed-Powys Police made him feel "like some criminal" and would not bother to report a crime like this again.

Mr Beynon, from Pembroke Dock, said he was left struggling with anxiety.

Dyfed-Powys Police apologised for an investigation that was "below the standard that should be expected".

The investigation was eventually dropped, with Mr Beynon saying: "What I saw was an organisation that couldn't be bothered to actually deal with it."

The abuse started when, in summer 2020, the Pembrokeshire councillor tried to get County Hall lit up in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, provoking a backlash.

As a gay politician speaking in support of refugees, he said the abuse continued, with a co-ordinated campaign of graphic homophobic and racist messages, some threatening sexual and physical violence.

He said: "It was that kind of anxiety you have that, 'are these social media comments or threats going to materialise into something physical one day?'"

Initially, Mr Beynon did not want to report the abuse he was receiving, but things escalated when he received a threatening message pushed through his door.

Fearing for his safety, he called 101 multiple times but received no response and, when he received another threat of violence online, he panicked and called 999 but it took four days for the police to arrive.

He said there was a complete lack of communication from Dyfed-Powys Police and called the force's response "extremely poor".

He added: "I was extremely distressed it's probably fair to say worried about my safety, you know, afraid to go out checking if doors were locked.

"It completely destroyed my mental health.

"I'm not blaming that on Dyfed-Powys Police, but I think if I know there was real action, or if I'd seen that, actually, they were trying, I think I would have felt better."

Police lost Mr Beynon's evidence, uploaded via a secure portal, meaning he had to re-upload it and re-tell his experiences multiple times.

They also admitted missing the need to interview a suspect and, at one point, his case was lost in a system which meant it had not been flagged to a police officer to review.

When he was called to the police station to give a statement, he found officers recording him on body-worn camera as they told him they did not want him to overreact when they told him they were not going to pursue charges.

Mr Beynon said he went from "feeling like a victim, to feeling like you're some criminal".

He was finally told in March that the case was being dropped.

Dyfed-Powys Police apologised for the "lapse in service" and said "a full and thorough investigation of the reported hate crime followed".

One of the people abusing Mr Beynon was given a Community Protection Notice, but when it was breached he reported it to the police and said no action was taken.

"I've not reported stuff that I've seen towards me as in hate crime in more recent months because I haven't seen the point," he said.

Dyfed-Powys Police said it was "committed to effectively respond and thoroughly investigate" hate crime reports to ensure victims got "appropriate support".

Recorded homophobic hate crime in Wales went up five-fold in 10 years, to 1,329 offences in 2021-22.

Dyfed-Powys Police saw the biggest proportional jump in homophobic hate crimes and sexual orientation hate crime made up about one in five of all hate crimes recorded in Wales.

In 2021-22 just 9% of all hate crimes reported to police in England in Wales led to a charge or summons to court. 

According to LGBT+ anti-abuse charity GALOP, Mr Beynon's experience is common.

It has had to expand its services, including a helpline survivors can call and an advocacy service to help people through the process of reporting a crime, due to "ever-increasing" demand.

Its research said only one in eight victims reported an incident to the police and, of those, 46% were happy with the response they received.

Deputy chief executive Amy Roch said LGBT+ people's experiences were "minimised or treated as something that's just not that serious or important, that it hasn't been investigated properly".

She said this in turn "kind of reinforces the distrust that the community have for policing".

Dyfed-Powys Police's hate crime lead Ch Insp Dyfed Bolton said a complaint the force received about its handling of a hate crime was investigated and a response was given.

He added: "The response acknowledged that the service provided on this occasion had fallen below the standard that should be expected.

"Dyfed-Powys Police apologised for the lapse in service and a full and thorough investigation of the reported hate crime followed."