DOZENS of children in Essex have been victims of religious hate crime since 2017, figures show.

A Freedom of Information request to Essex Police has revealed 40 children under 15 were victims of religious hate crimes between 2017 and 2020.

A hate incident is any incident which the victim, or anyone else, thinks is based on someone’s prejudice towards them because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or because they are transgender.

Not all hate incidents will amount to criminal offences, but it is equally important that these are reported and recorded by the police.

Evidence of the hate element is not a requirement. People do not need to personally perceive the incident to be hate related.

It would be enough if another person, a witness or even a police officer thought that the incident was hate related.

The year which saw the most amount of hate crimes was 2018-2019, with 16 crimes reported, five of which were in October.

In 2017-2018, 11 crimes were reported, with six of those in June.

There were 13 crimes reported from 2019-2020, spread throughout April, July, October, November and December.

Throughout this time period, there were five religious hate crimes that were recorded in schools when the victim was under 15, with one reported each year.

Of all these crimes, Essex Police say there were 15 occasions when the victim was Muslim.

In the Freedom of Information Request, the police were asked how many incidents saw a person working at the school report the issue. However, the force said that there was "insufficient information" about the incidents and could not answer the question.