Police in Ellesmere Port have stressed their ‘zero tolerance to hate crime’ after a security guard was racially abused.

The force has kitted the guard out with body-worn audio-visual CCTV in a bid to identify the offenders following the incident on the site of the now defunct Sutton High School on Mill Lane on August 5.

PC Graeme Morrison, of Ellesmere Port Local Policing Unit, described the derelict site as the ‘epicentre of all antisocial behaviour’ in the town, where groups of youths are congregating in the evening to light fires and climb on the roof of the abandoned sports centre.

But police say they are treating the racist language youths hurled at the guard as a hate crime, rather than antisocial behaviour.

“This was a hate crime and we have zero tolerance to hate crime,” said PC Morrison.

“We have responded by issuing the guard with the body-worn CCTV, which is a new facility available to us.

“We will do everything we can to bring the offenders to justice.”