Police Appeal for Information after 'Hate Crime' at King Street's Polish Centre

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Suspect caught on CCTV spraying graffiti on doors early on Sunday morning

Hammersmith and Fulham Police have launched an appeal for information concerning a racist graffiti attack on King Street's Polish Centre.

Police say they are continuing to investigate a hate crime incident which took place in the early hours of Sunday morning.

They say officers were called to King Street at 10.25am on Sunday, 26 June after offensive graffiti was daubed on the front of the Polish Social and Cultural Association.

Police say the single male suspect involved has been captured on CCTV at the scene at 5.22am, though the footage has not been released the to public.

It shows him approach the location on a pedal cycle and stop outside before he is seen to spray yellow graffiti on the doors of the community centre. He then makes off on his bike.

He was wearing a orange jacket and grey hoodie, but no further description of this suspect is available at this time. 

This incident is being treated as a hate crime due to the racially aggravated nature of the criminal damage.

PC Jenny Doe from Ravenscourt Park Safer Neighbourhood Team said: "We have an excellent rapport with this Polish community Centre and have been very clear in terms of how serious we take such incidents of hate crime.

"High visibility foot patrols have been stepped up in the area and we are doing everything to reassure them and other local community groups in and around the area that we are here and will deal with any allegations of hate rime robustly and efficiently."

Anyone with information concerning this incident is asked to contact Ravenscourt Park SNT on 0208 246 2702 or by via 101.

Alternatively contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or via crimestoppers-uk.org quoting Cris reference 6013984/16.

The Met says it is committed to tackling hate crime in all its forms, and has long since recognised the impact of hate crime on communities and the hidden nature of this crime, which remains largely under reported.

Positive action is taken to investigate all hate crime allegations, support victims and their families and bring perpetrators to justice. The Met always seeks ways to increase reporting and work with a number of third party reporting sites, so that victims who would otherwise feel unable to approach police direct can report crime to non-police organisations and individuals such as TellMAMA for Islamophobic incidents and the Community Security Trust [CST] for anti-Semitic hate crime.

Victims of hate crime can also now report online via the Met Police website.