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Northumbria Police recorded two incidents of ‘ginger abuse’ over the past three years.

The Sunday Sun asked the force for records of all recorded crime where the victims’ red or ginger hair was a factor over the past three years.

They returned two incidents, one in South Tyneside and the other in Northumberland.

The incident in South Tyneside, on October 3, 2013 was an incident of ‘public disorder’ that didn’t lead to a prosecution.

On May 5 this year there was an incident of violence against the person in Northumberland where the victim’s ginger hair was a factor.

Northumbria Police said that they could not confirm whether the victims’ hair colour was the only reason for these crimes - only that they were ‘used amongst other form[s] of verbal abuse’.

The distressed little girl went back inside and old her mum about the incident.

It contrasts with Greater Manchester, where police returned 70 incidents ranging from Facebook abuse to hatred directed at police officers themselves.

One person in the Alexandra Park area reported that someone on Facebook sent them a message saying: “I’m going to f****** petrol bomb your house you m***** f****** anorexic ginger b****”.

The person responsible was put on restorative justice.

In March, someone driving a Ford Focus shouted ‘you f****** little ginger b****’ to an eight-year-old girl who was playing in the street in Orrell.

The distressed little girl went back inside and told her mum about the incident.

Another incident, reported this year in the city’s Northern Quarter, said that someone had made contact with them on Facebook over several months, leaving several hateful messages such as ‘ginger ugly piece of s***’.

Greater Manchester Police officers have also had to deal with abuse relating to their hair colour.

In August last year a police officer had arrested somebody and was searching them.

The suspect called the officer a ‘f****** ginger w****’ and spat at them, before being put in the back of the van.

Hair colour is not currently one of the categories under which police record hate crimes.

Police record hate crime based on race or religion, disability, sexual orientation and transgender issues.

In January 2014, a Newcastle schoolboy landed his mum in the dock after skipping school because he was bullied for being ginger.

Jordan Chapman, then aged 14, persuaded his parents to dye his red hair brown in a bid to stop the abuse.

It ended with mum Deborah being taken to court for letting him play truant before the transformation.

She was given a six-month community order by Newcastle upon Tyne magistrates because Jordan skipped classes.

Defending, Michael Crowe said: “Jordan had vivid ginger hair. He was being severely bullied at school and was refusing to leave his bedroom in a morning.

“Jordan begged his mum to dye his hair so that he would fit in at school.

“Since then, his attendance has improved.”

The year nine pupil at St Cuthbert’s RC High, said then: “I’ll never go back to being ginger. Before I got my hair dyed I couldn’t concentrate in class because people were calling me names.

“They were calling me ginger minger and nobody wanted to be my friend. I stopped going because I couldn’t face the bullies any more.”

Ginger-haired dad George slammed the court’s sentencing. He said: “Deb tried to get Jordan to go to school. I think a six month sentence is very harsh.

“You wouldn’t tease a kid for the colour of his skin and you shouldn’t tease a kid for having ginger hair.”

School principal Carol Davison said then: “I am unable to comment on individual students but do we have procedures for managing attendance and allegations of bullying.”

There is no suggestion Jordan was the victim of the incident recorded by Northumbria Police.

Red hair roots and myths

* It is caused by mutated MC1R gene

* It is most prevalent in far northern and western Europe

* It may have survived due to increased vitamin D production in pale-skinned

* ‘Sexual selection’ - the Darwinian principle that a set of characteristics make a person more attractive as a mate - is also possible

* There is disagreement over redheads’ reputed higher pain tolerance

* Redheads were sacrificed in ancient Egypt

* They were associated with witches and vampires in Europe

* They were reputed to bleed more

* Mary Magdalene, Adam, Judas and even Jesus have been depicted as redheads

* Adolph Hitler reportedly banned the marriages of two redheads as he feared their children would be “deviant offspring”.