Overview

• Rosie Jones and Lee Peart were targeted on October 5 on a Brighton to London Victoria service where a group mocked their voices and threw wine.
• Peart reported the incident via BTP’s 61016 text line, prompting officers to meet the pair, ensure they got home safely, and launch an investigation.
• Chief Superintendent Chris Casey, one of London’s most senior openly gay BTP officers, called the abuse “utterly abhorrent” and stated that hate has no place on the railways.
• As part of the awareness week, BTP is hosting pop-up engagements at London stations and strengthening targeted patrols to improve responses to hate incidents.
• Home Office figures show 115,990 hate crime offences in the year to March 2025, a 2% increase, with Metropolitan Police data excluded from year-on-year comparisons due to recording changes.