Perth and Kinross Council chiefs will respond directly to homophobic inquiry

Dec 4 2009 by Johnathon Menzies, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

UNDER-FIRE Perth and Kinross Council chief executive Bernadette Malone will respond directly to a member of the public who asked what the local authority was doing to tackle homophobic crime.

With calls for greater accountability in the wake of the Shore Road incinerator affair still ringing in their ears, the announcement came as the local authority’s scrutiny committee revived tragic memories of the callous killing of 51-year-old Jim Kerr this week.

The former PKC employee was left lying in a pool of blood after a sustained attack on Perth’s South Inch on April 22, 2007.

He suffered a catalogue of horrific injuries, including extensive bleeding to both sides of his brain and several fractures to his face.

Shortly after the attack, a 15-year-old Perth schoolboy – one of three people involved – was heard to shout that the victim was “gay” and that he “hated poofters,” a subsequent Perth High Court trial was told.

Wednesday’s committee debate was prompted after an unnamed member of the public wrote asking what measures had been put in place to tackle homophobic crime – as well as to foster links with the gay community – as a result of Mr Kerr’s death.

The letter asked: “What actions, initiatives and projects have the council, and its partners, undertaken in these two-and-a-half years to address homophobic crime, engage with lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender communities, and how has it fulfilled its designation as a Stonewall diversity champion?”

Gillian Taylor, the council’s head of democratic services, agreed with the rest of those gathered that Ms Malone write to the individual answering the questions laid out.

This was viewed as the appropriate course of action because the inquiry was submitted under the scrutiny committee’s policy review remit – but didn’t directly ask for any specific policy to be changed, or suggest any changes.