SICKENING homophobic and racist graffiti scrawled on a phonebox in the West End has been slammed as “completely unacceptable”.

Slurs were daubed adverts pasted to the sides of disused booths at the corner of Finnieston Street and Argyle Street.

Across the photograph of a black woman, featured in one of the advertisements, were the words “S*** monkey”.

Glasgow Times:

On the forehead of a man pictured on the neighbouring booth was the homophobic slur “f**”.

Bigoted vandals were blasted by Glasgow cop Inspector Paul Daley who called the graffiti “offensive” and “completely unacceptable”.

The city council was alerted to the vandalism and works to have offensive graffiti removed from public land or property within 48 hours.

Glasgow Times:

But because the phone boxes are maintained by BT, the council has to contact the company asking for its removal.

A spokeswoman said: “We have informed BT of this incident.

“We’ll keep an eye on it and if it’s not away by Monday we will chase BT or remove it ourselves if we can.”

Inspector Daley of Greater Glasgow Police Division added: “We will liaise with the local council to have it removed as soon as possible and would encourage anyone with information about the graffiti contact Partick Police Station via 101.”

Glasgow Times:

Reports of hate crime were on the rise in Scotland when the latest figures were published last year.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service revealed in June that reports in all categories had increased in the period 2019-20 from the previous year’s figures with hate crimes relating to race and sexual orientation the most frequently reported.

A BT spokesman said: “We’re disappointed to hear that one our payphones has been vandalised in this way.

"We’ll arrange for the graffiti to be removed as soon as possible. We’d encourage anyone who spots anti-social behaviour to report this to Police Scotland.”