3A.—(1) An offence committed by a person is aggravated by hatred for the purposes of sections 6A, 7A, 11A and 18A if—

(a) where there is a specific victim of the offence—

(i) at the time of committing the offence, or immediately before or after doing so, the person demonstrates hatred towards the victim, and

(ii) the hatred is on account of the victim’s membership or presumed membership of a group defined by reference to a protected characteristic,

or

(b) whether or not there is a specific victim of the offence, the offence is motivated (wholly or partly) by hatred towards a group of persons on account of the group being defined by reference to a protected characteristic.

(2) It is immaterial whether or not an accused person’s hatred is also on account (to any extent) of any other factor.

(3) In this section—

"membership", in relation to a group, includes association with members of the group;

"presumed" means presumed by the person who commits an offence under section 6A, 7A, 11A or 18A, as may be appropriate.]