A STUDY of official data has revealed how racial hate crime soared in the North-East in the four years before the coronavirus pandemic.

Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka all received online racist abuse after missing penalties in the Euro 2020 final defeat to Italy on Sunday night.

The comments have prompted a police investigation and widespread condemnation, including from England’s manager Gareth Southgate, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Prince William.

Charity Victim Support said it was “appalled” by the abuse, and added that it followed a rise in reported race hate crime nationally during the pandemic.

Home Office data reveals a record number of race hate crimes were recorded by police forces in England and Wales in 2019-20 – the latest available figures.

Durham Constabulary recorded 503 crimes during the period – an increase of almost double compared to 2015-16, when 262 incidents were reported.

A spokesman for the force said: “While some of the increase is down to a change in the way crime is recorded, we are certain that part of it is due to victims having more confidence to come forward and report offences to the police because they know they will be listened to.

“Racism and hate crime in any form is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated.

“We pride ourselves on being an inclusive police force which puts victims at the heart of everything we do.

“We would urge anyone who has suffered hate crime to contact us and we will take action to bring the offenders to justice.”

Cleveland Police recorded 712 crimes during the period – an increase of 51% compared to 2015-16, when 471 incidents were reported.

North Yorkshire Police recorded 428 crimes during the period – an increase of more than double compared to 2015-16, when 186 incidents were reported.

They also marked a 14 per cent rise from 2018-19, when 375 racial hate crimes were reported.

Across England and Wales, police recorded 76,070 racial hate crimes in 2019-20, the equivalent of more than 200 a day, and the highest number since comparable records began in 2011-12.

The figure, which did not include data from Greater Manchester Police, was a 6 per cent rise from 72,041 in 2018-19, and up by two-thirds from 2015-16, when 45,440 were reported.

The rise was partly down to improvements in recording and an awareness of hate crime, the Home Office said.

It also said events like the EU referendum in 2016 and terrorist attacks in 2017 were likely to have had an impact.

But Victim Support said other factors, such as the murder of George Floyd by a policeman in America last year, had driven a further increase in reports.

The charity said it was “extremely saddened and appalled” by the abuse suffered by the three England football players following Sunday’s match.

Jo Parks, services director, said: “We’ve been concerned to see rising reports of race hate crime throughout the pandemic and have seen significant increases in the number of victims coming to us for support.

“These hate crimes have had a damaging impact on victims’ safety and sense of self-worth, which can take years to re-build.”

In the wake of the racist abuse of the England footballers, home secretary Priti Patel is now urging social media firms to take tougher action over racism ahead.

She said: “Racist abuse is utterly unacceptable and illegal, whether it takes place on or offline – those individuals who commit racist offences should rightly face the full force of the law.”

The incident has also seen a fresh wave of support for model Katie Price’s online petition aimed at making it more difficult for online trolls to be anonymous.

The petition – which now has more than 660,000 signatures – wants to make it a legal requirement for anyone opening a new social media account to provide a verified form of ID.

As of around 11am on Wednesday (July 14), 52,872 people from across Yorkshire and The Humber had lent their names to the petition.

It was launched following abuse directed at Ms Price’s son, Harvey.