Race hate crimes reported to the police have almost doubled in one year.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) released figures showing 111 people were charged with a racist offence in the year ending March 31, 2003, compared with 76 in the previous year.

A spokesman for Sussex Police said racially-motivated crime was not soaring - the figures showed more crimes were being classed as racist.

He said in the past, many racist crimes would have been classified by the nature of the offence, such as grievous bodily harm.

Now officers take more notice of racist motivation behind such crimes, which added to the statistics.

Chief Superintendent Dave Gaylor, head of Sussex Police Criminal Justice Department, said: "The figures reflect the increased awareness of officers in recognising this type of incident and in taking positive action to deal with it."

Of the 111 defendants, 78 went to court to face 104 charges - there were guilty pleas on 71 charges and conviction after trial on another 12 charges.

The figures were collected by the CPS Racist Incident Monitoring Scheme Annual Report 2002-2003, which processes information sent by police on racist crimes.

Chief Crown Prosecutor for Sussex Sarah Jane Gallagher said: "The report shows we are getting significantly better at dealing with cases involving racist incidents.

"The CPS is going through a period of radical change. We have launched a public policy statement on racially and religiously aggravated crime and made rapid progress towards our commitment to adopting responsibility for changing decisions.

"Public confidence in the criminal justice systems is crucial.

"More people are coming forward to report these types of crimes knowing we and the police take them very seriously.

"We are determined to work alongside police and communities to deal with these offences through the courts wherever the evidence allows and prosecute them vigorously."

Last month The Argus reported how racist tearaway Lee Domagala was jailed for 32 months after attacking a teacher at his former school in Brighton and punching a 14-year-old black pupil.

The 19-year-old, of South Coast Road, Telscombe Cliffs, tried to force the Dorothy Stringer pupil to hand over his mobile phone. When he refused, Domagala punched him, saying: "I did that because you are black and I don't like blacks."

In January 2003, teenage asylum-seeker Alhassan Kamara was slashed across the throat on the platform of Worthing station. The 16-year-old was lucky to survive.

Brett Charlton, 26, hurled racist abuse at him during the attack.

Charlton, of Thorn Road, Worthing, admitted causing grievous bodily harm with racial aggravation and was given a ten-month jail sentence.