A “prevailing acceptance of and indifference” to violence against gay men before the mid-1990s led to a failure of justice for victims of hate crimes in New South Wales, a report has found.

On Wednesday a NSW parliamentary investigation into gay and transgender hate crimes between 1970 and 2010 released its preliminary findings.

In his foreword the committee’s chair, Shayne Mallard, said “pervasive prejudices” against the LGBTIQ community within the state’s police and society generally had affected justice for a number of victims over decades.

“Even with legislative change following the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1984, bias attitudes were still being perpetuated within the broader community with a legacy that is still keenly experienced today,” he said.

“The ensuing violence and crime against gay and transgender people, particularly in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, was shocking, abhorrent and all too common.

“Amidst this stood a NSW police force and a broader criminal justice system with a culture influenced by the social values of the time.”

The committee was established after many reports of failures in police investigations of gay hate crimes in NSW.

It found a “legacy” of injustice around historic gay hate crimes remained, and said committee members had been “disturbed by the evidence it received, not only of the crimes themselves, but of the response it drew from the police at the time”.

The report singled out four victims of gay hate crimes in particular – Alan Rosendale, Scott Johnson, John Russell and Ross Warren – drawing on evidence given during the inquiry and past coronial findings to conclude that in all four cases, and a number of others, the police response was inadequate.

The report recommended that the committee resume a new investigation in the new parliament after next month’s state election, paying particular attention to gay hate crimes in regional and rural areas.

It said the “isolation experienced by LGBTIQ people in regional and rural communities has the potential to make them particularly vulnerable to crime and even less likely to come forward and seek assistance from the police”.

“The committee acknowledges that the timeframe for this inquiry has not been sufficient to enable it to travel to regional and rural parts of the state [and] the committee is of the view that rural and regional experiences of gay hate crimes is an issue for further investigation,” it said.

“Should the Legislative Council take up our recommendation … the committee should prioritise hearings in regional and rural areas to hear these stories in person, rather than in writing, and identify how to best support the needs of this particularly vulnerable group.”

While acknowledging calls – including from the NSW Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby – for NSW police to formally apologise to victims of gay hate crimes, the committee did not recommend that one be given.

Instead it said committee members had been “deeply moved by the stories it has heard and the strength and resilience demonstrated by victims of gay hate crimes and their families” and pointed out changes to police culture since the end of the 90s.