HATE crimes against LGBT+ people are one of the more consistently violent hate crimes causing untold harm and distress, a head of a charity has warned as figures yesterday revealed a stark rise in homophobic attacks.

Leni Morris, chief executive of the LGBT+ anti-abuse charity Galop, said there was a worrying misconception with the “narrative about anti-LGBT+ hate crime that it’s just mean tweets.”

Ms Morris said the charity had been supporting victims of hate crime who have been blackmailed, experienced sexual violence and been left with life-changing injuries.

Others have had their homes broken into by neighbours aiming to “frighten or commit violence against them,” or had their personal details published online, she said.

The warning comes as new analysis shows recorded homophobic and transphobic hate crimes in Britain rose sharply after lockdown, hitting their highest monthly level since the pandemic began.

Freedom of information requests by the PA news agency found at least 14,670 sexual orientation hate crime offences were recorded from January to August 2021, compared with 11,841 in the same period of 2020 and 10,817 in 2019.

While offences averaged 1,456 a month from January to April this year, they jumped to 2,211 from May to August.

There is a similar trend for transphobic offences, which increased from 208 a month to 324.

Ms Morris warned that anti-LGBT+ hate crime was one of the more violent forms of crime, and there was “a wide range of things that people do to LGBT+ people as part of hate crime, and they have quite a wide range of effects on the victims, whether that’s physical injuries, whether that is severe emotional and psychological distress.”

Charities said the worrying rise in figures were a stark reminder LGBTQ+ people were still at risk of attack “because of who we are.”

Stonewall associate director of policy and research Eloise Stonborough said the figures were unlikely to present the full picture due to under-reporting, and it was vital hate crimes were recorded and prosecuted.

She said: “It’s always worrying to see an increase in anti-LGBTQ+ hate crime, particularly at a time when our communities were more isolated than ever.”

The National Police Chiefs Council strongly encouraged victims to come forward and said officers were highly trained and would “treat everyone with respect and dignity and handle cases sensitively.”