RACIST attacks come under the heading of hate crime in police figures.

And police statistics which show a rise of more than half the number of hate crimes from the six months of April to September last year to the same period this year.

A hate crime is defined as any hate incident which constitutes a criminal offence which is perceived by the victim or any other person as being motivated by prejudice or hate.

Khalique Miah, 38, suffered a racist assault in Dorchester in 2008.

He started the One World festival there and runs the Speak Easy Dorchester group that promotes multi-cultural relations in the town. He hopes they have helped bring the number of hate crimes down there.

He said: “Colour and creed should not matter as we are all human beings.

“If everybody looked at each other the same way we would not have these problems.”

Mr Miah was born in Bangladesh but came to England in 1984 and sees himself as British.

He said: “Although we are from different backgrounds we are all the same and we need to celebrate the differences.”