A YOUNG mum spoke out yesterday about how her two-year-old disabled child has been the victim of “disgusting” hate crime.

Bethan Germon from Swansea said “so many disgusting comments have been made” about her daughter Lydia who has Dandy-Walker syndrome, a congenital brain disease causing her head to swell.

This has included people claiming that she has cancer or that she should have been terminated, Ms Germon told BBC Radio 5 Live.

An operation intended to help her condition went wrong and caused Lydia to have chemical meningitis and sepsis, which means she has complex disabilities and needs a feeding tube.

Ms Germon recently witnessed another mum in a supermarket asking her children what they were pointing and laughing at. When they said they were ridiculing Lydia, the mum joined in.

Ms Germon said she wishes that people would approach her and talk to her.

She said: “I’m more than happy to explain.

“I really, really thought that as a country we were over discriminating [against] people, but clearly, we’re not.”

There has been nearly a 150 per cent increase in hate crime against under-16s with disabilities over the last three years, figures obtained by Radio 5 Live show.

Police forces across Britain recorded 450 reported incidents last year, up from 181 in 2014-15, including verbal assaults, online abuse, and physical attacks, freedom of information requests show.

Amanda Batten, from the Disabled Children’s Partnership, said such discrimination can “lead to families being reluctant to go out and do ordinary things and lead to them being isolated from their communities.”

Research by the coalition of charities shows that 80 per cent of parents with disabled children had experienced offensive comments to them and their child, either in person or on social media.