Notts Police issue advice and reassurance over hate crime letters

Over the past few days, a number of incidents of malicious communications have been reported across the UK which are, at this time, being treated as part of a series. These have been in the form of letters sent to residential and business addresses.

Counter Terrorism Policing North East are coordinating the investigation at this time and a national strategy is in place.

The letters intend to cause fear and offence. To date, none of those reported to police have been sent to named individuals.

Superintendent Ted Antill said: “We’re aware of the distress these letters have caused and we will take any report extremely seriously. We are monitoring the situation very closely, locally and nationally and we’re working closely with the North East Counter Terrorism Unit.

“We want to make it clear to anyone who might be considering using these letters in a hostile way to try to instil fear in the community that this will constitute a hate crime and we will investigate to the fullest extent and prosecute offenders. We take a zero tolerance approach to hate crime and we’d always urge anyone who has been the victim of or a witness to hate crime to report it.”

If a letter is received:

If you do receive a letter, parcel or other post to your premises that is threatening or abusive then please follow the below guidelines:

• Keep the number of people who handle the letter and the envelope to a minimum – this is to allow police the best chance to identify the sender through the use of forensic techniques and minimise the risk of harm.

• Place the letter and the envelope in a clean plastic bag or similar (a sandwich bag or freezer bag for example) as this will stop further contamination.

• Call the local police and inform them, they will assess what you have received and know the procedure to follow, whether the letter is part of this series or not.