A family who subjected their neighbours to racial abuse and harassment have been evicted from their home in Edinburgh.
In one of the first successful legal cases of its kind, Edinburgh City Council and Lothian and Borders Police removed the family from their property in the Wardieburn area of the city.
The action followed years of complaints about Sarah Hutton and her family from terrorised neighbours. They were accused of numerous attacks on local residents, including racially motivated assault, racist abuse and vandalism.
Neighbours reported their cars being damaged, their stair doors and door entry systems broken and their windows being smashed with bricks and stones. One family were even forced to move away from the area after being subjected to years of raciast abuse and assaults.
Today, council officials insisted the family had been given every opportunity to improve their behaviour. The tenants were sent numerous warning letters, were visited by joint police and council teams and had even been offered tenancy issues support.
However, when the family refused to take action to improve their behaviour, legal action was taken against them.
Councillor Paul Edie, Leader for Community Safety, said: “This action sends a clear message that we will not tolerate any sort of racially motivated harassment. Praise should go to residents for standing up and giving evidence against these people despite fears they may have.
"Earlier this year the Edinburgh Community Safety Partnership launched a strategy against hate crime and working with our partners the Police we aim to eradicate this abhorrent behaviour.”
Chief Inspector Denise Mulvaney added: “Lothian and Borders Police take the issue of hate crime very seriously, and we believe the robust action taken in this case was the right thing to do and has resulted in the right outcome.
"We are committed to working with our partners to make communities safer through the Take Control strategy, and these evictions highlight the type of action we will take towards repeat offenders.”
