HE'S been spat at, verbally abused and the victim of hate crime throughout his life

Now he's been recognised for his work on supporting victims across the city

Ian Loynes - who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and needs a wheelchair to get around - realised hate crime needed to be tackled.

In January 2017 his organisation Spectrum Centre for Independent Living became one of Southampton's first hate crime reporting centre.

Now 16 groups across the city form a network who can all report hate crimes to the police on behalf of a victim

It means the victim automatically gets support from their peers, in a non-intimidating environment - rather than dealing with a police officer

But it also means community groups can have an influence on the perpetrators themselves.

He said: "These people live in community groups with their peers so we can use negative peer pressure to discourage hate crime and help them understand that it can be very damaging - it can be long term damaging.

"Hate crime is something that is becoming more in the public awareness generally. We recognised neither the police or local authority have the resource to tackle it but it's better tackled through the community as the police aren't really trusted in those communities.

"It's run by disabled people for disabled people we believe very strongly in peer support. We can tackle hate crime together

Now Ian has been awarded the Southampton Police Commander's Award in recognition of his work

He was honoured for his "total commitment and dedication as one of the founding community members of the city's third party hate crime reporting network" and for "taking the lead on work in supporting the building and strengthening of the network."

He added: "We are trying to recruit more community groups to be more hate crime reporting centres and doing peer support with people who share the same to share the after effects of hate crime

That's the point of the network - so that people can go somewhere they feel an affinity to rather than to an anonymous officer.

"They are a crime and you shouldn't have to put up with it. We don't have funding but we can share our resources so that we can all benefit from it."