A COUNCILLOR is calling for more action in west Dorset schools to combat online hate and abuse.

This week, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) revealed that between June 2015 and June 2016 in Dorset, there were 97 hate crime cases with a 82.5 per cent conviction rate.

For the same period, the CPS prosecuted 82 homophobic and transphobic hate crimes across Wessex, with 92.7 per cent resulting in a conviction, providing the highest conviction rate nationally for a CPS area for victims. In the Dorset area there were 11 cases with a 81.8 per cent conviction rate.

In July, the Bridport News reported that hundreds of campaigners marched through the town in solidarity against hate crime.

Bridport Police Inspector Neil Woods is reassuring residents during National Hate Crime Awareness Week that west Dorset is a "safe area to live" despite seeing a slight increase in hate crime.

He said: "We always take reports of hate crime extremely seriously and will fully investigate and deal with any incidents robustly.

"In Bridport and across west Dorset we do not have a problem with hate crime and it is a safe area to live. However, in line with the national picture Dorset did see a slight increase in reported incidents following the EU referendum. Despite this, we believe hate crime still remains under-reported and we encourage anyone who may have been a victim to contact police so we can take action and provide support.”

This week, a 19-year-old was jailed after he racially abused and threatened doctors and nurses at Dorset County Hospital at the weekend.

Earlier this year it was reported that a couple with Down’s Syndrome were accosted in Bridport and told by a man in the wake of the Leave vote that ‘we can now get rid of people like you’.

Cllr Ros Kayes, who also sits on the Bridport Neighbourhood Justice Panel Steering Group, is calling on schools to educate people in west Dorset against online hate crime.

She said: "Hate crime is on the increase, especially on social media where people feel they can be as abusive as they want without repercussion.

"However it also happens in the street and there were reports of awful things being said to a person with Downes Syndrome in Bridport after Brexit. It's as if some people felt they could suddenly say all the things they'd been holding in for years. We do not give people enough support as a society when this happens.

"Some people in the community are very accepting and some people aren't and some of those people can be verbally or physically abusive. Hate crime against women and girls on social media is on the increase and I don't think nearly enough is done either to prosecute the perpetrators as the police have limited resources, or to protect the victims. There needs to be education in schools on this."