Latest report by COPNI says older people need protection from both vulnerability and hostility because of their age
The Commissioner for Older People for Northern Ireland, Siobhan Casey, is calling for age to be included as a protected characteristic in the Criminal Justice (Sentencing etc) Bill, warning that the legislation as currently drafted does not fully recognise the different ways older people can experience crime.
In a new report, ‘The Case for Age: A Review of the Criminal Justice (Sentencing etc) Bill’s Hate Crime Provisions’ COPNI examines the evidence for including age alongside characteristics such as race, religion, sexual orientation and disability.
The report argues that while the Bill recognises that vulnerability due to old age can be an aggravating factor in certain crimes, this is not a substitute for recognising hostility because of a person’s age.
Speaking about the issue, the Commissioner for Older People for Northern Ireland, Siobhan Casey, said:
“The need for older people to be recognised within hate crime protections has been a longstanding position of this office and one that should be carefully considered during the Assembly’s scrutiny of the Bill.
“The introduction of a vulnerable victim aggravator is not enough because it risks reducing crimes against older people to issues of vulnerability. Being older and being vulnerable are not the same thing. An older person can be independent, active and perfectly capable, and still experience hostility because of their age.
“It also risks leaving Northern Ireland behind jurisdictions such as Scotland where age is already recognised within hate crime legislation.
“The law needs to be able to recognise when age-related hostility is demonstrated during the course of a crime. This is not about saying that every crime against an older person is a hate crime. It is about ensuring that, where hostility because of age is present, the law is capable of recognising it. Older people should not be left without this protection.”
The report highlights the impact of crime on older people and the challenges they can face in the criminal justice system. In 2025/26, the recorded sanction outcomes rate for victims aged 65 and over in Northern Ireland was 17.3% - the lowest of any adult age group.
It also examines a recent case in Derry/Londonderry in which a 79-year-old man was subjected to a sustained assault during a burglary at the home he shared with his wife. Both victims required hospital treatment, and the couple have been unable to return to their home of 45 years.
In this case, the prosecutor identified the age of the victims as one of the aggravating features of the case. COPNI argues that the case highlights the need for age to be included as a protected characteristic so that the law can better recognise age-related hostility where it is present.
In another case study detailed in the report, an 89-year-old woman was subjected to an ageist verbal attack before being grabbed and pulled to the ground by a 26-year-old man. When her 69-year-old son tried to intervene, he was also assaulted and suffered a broken finger.
In COPNI’s view, the offender’s use of abusive, ageist language during the assault demonstrates the type of hostility that should be recognised in law. The report argues that including age as a protected characteristic would allow the criminal justice system to recognise such hostility when it occurs during an offence.
The report also refers to Judge Desmond Marrinan’s 2020 independent review of hate crime legislation in Northern Ireland, which found sufficient evidence of hostility-based offences against older people to justify including age as a protected characteristic.
The Commissioner is urging decision-makers to consider her recommendations as opportunities to strengthen the legal protections available to older people.
