Disability hate crime needs to be tackled

He was a lovely lad, peaceful and quiet, says Pauline, his mother, looking at a photo of Keith Philpott as a baby with his twin brother Kevin, in her neat sitting room in Billingham, near Middlesbrough.

The twins were born prematurely, in November 1968, into a close-knit family with four older siblings, Carol, Stephen, Michael and Christine. They were diagnosed at around one with learning difficulties, and attended specialist schools throughout their childhood. Both left school unable to read or write much, but were prized locally for their handiness in repairing bicycles for children.

Christine tells me that Keith wanted to live independently after he came back from a spell in London, where he had attended college and lived with their brother, Stephen. Keith’s flat seemed perfect. It was just 15 minutes’ walk from his mother, and near other family members.

Keith was unemployed and filled his days with cleaning, cycle rides and visits to relatives, eating tea at his mother’s house every night as he couldn’t cook. But this tranquil existence was cut short in March 2005.

On 24 March, Pauline recalls, she had prepared one of Keith’s favourite meals, sausages and mash, for his tea. But Keith never came. She, and other family members rang Keith’s phone, again and again. Christine recalls: “It just went to voicemail, and he was never without his phone, it was his lifeline, so we knew something was wrong.”

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Disability hate crime needs to be tackled