Oxford pub landlord Spike Greenwood says he has never encountered problems Police are urging victims of homophobic hate crimes to report any incidents, including verbal abuse, as a new report finds gay people are suffering high levels of harassment and violence.

A new study to be published this week has found the level of homophobic crime in the county is making gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people wary of their behaviour in public places, at work, and at school.

People who were surveyed said they had experienced high levels of homophobic harassment and violence throughout their lives.

But many saw this abuse as a normal occurrence and it was found that many offences went unreported to the police.

Thames Valley Police has said that all uniformed officers are trained to deal with homophobic crime and want victims to report any incidents to them. Oxford University researcher Somjen Frazer carried out the study, which has been described by police as one of the most thorough pieces of research into homophobic crime in Britain.

The report, to be published on Wednesday, found that the reporting of homophobic verbal abuse was particularly uncommon. More serious incidents were more likely to be reported, except sexual assault.

The study found that people's fear of homophobic crime made them wary of how they behaved in public places.

The Oxfordshire Homophobia Awareness Liaison Team (HALT), a partnership between the gay community, police, Oxfordshire County Council and Oxford City Council, has worked during the last 10 years on improving the relationship between police and the gay community. Pc Lucinda Bevan, community and race relations officer at Thames Valley Police, said: "All uniformed police officers in Oxford are now trained to deal with homophobic crime.

"We take all hate crime very seriously and we would encourage people to report any incidents, even of verbal abuse, because this can help us to build up a picture of when and where incidents are taking place and will help us to take action."

Bruce McLaren, Community Safety Manager at Oxfordshire County Council, said: "All Oxfordshire's Crime and Disorder Partnerships have a focus on tackling homophobic and other hate crime in their new three-year plans.

"The county council is committed to supporting any measures to reduce hate crime and support people who are victims, and encourages people to report homophobic incidents."

Spike Greenwood, manager of the Castle Tavern, a pub popular with Oxford's gay community, said: "It is not a problem in the centre of Oxford.

"We have good community relations with all the businesses around here and brilliant support from the police.

"I have lived in Oxford for six years and have never had problems because I am gay.

"Having said that, the centre of Oxford is more cosmopolitan than other parts of Oxfordshire, where I wouldn't be surprised if there were problems."