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Police failed to put any officers on a training course to spot LGBT hate crimes despite labelling the problem an “absolute priority”.

It’s feared homophobic attacks are on the rise in Scotland, and in 2016 Police Scotland's then chief constable Phil Gormley said tackling prejudice was top of his force’s agenda.

The force said at the time that nearly 100 officers – about 0.5 per cent of the total – had been trained by the charity Equality Network to spot LGBT abuse.

But since then, no officers have been sent on the course.

Scottish Greens justice spokesman John Finnie MSP said that was “concerning”, and added: “In light of the continued rise in homophobic and transphobic crimes, I’d urge the Chief Constable to ensure key officers receive this important training as a matter of urgency.”

This month, one of Scotland’s best-known gay bars was targeted by yobs who scrawled homophobic abuse on the front doors.

Images on social media showed how vandals had painted “p***s out” on the entrance to The Polo Lounge in Glasgow.

When Police Scotland announced its partnership with the Equality Network, it said officers would use the training to advise colleagues.

Tim Hopkins, director of the Equality Network, confirmed: “We still offer a range of training on LGBTI issues to public, voluntary and private sector bodies.”

Chief Inspector Coleen Wylie of Police Scotland’s Safer Communities team said: “Police Scotland is fully committed to tackling all forms of hate crime and we continue to train officers and staff to raise awareness about this.

“We also run regular ­campaigns and work with ­partners to increase public knowledge of hate crime, to raise awareness of reporting methods and to ­influence offender behaviour.

“We believe that hate crime continues to be under-reported and we urge anyone who has been a victim of or witness to such an incident to contact us or third party reporting organisations, details of which can be found on the Police Scotland website.”

A spokeswoman added that the force had used internal training to help officers spot LGBTI hate crimes.