The court victory of a gay couple over the mother and daughter who subjected them to ongoing homophobic abuse may have been a boost for gay rights in Kent, but many more traumatic hate crimes are going unreported in the county.

Karen Reeves, 44, and her 22-year-old daughter Christie Myles, both from Whitstable, were sentenced on Thursday following a campaign of homophobic abuse against neighbours Michael Harris and Shires Crichton.

Now Kent Police is urging gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people who are being subjected to homophobic harassment to take a lesson from the couple and speak to the authorities.

Mick Cronin, community liaison officer for south Kent, said: "Homophobia, while not particularly prevalent in Kent, will always be present. We are under no illusions that we hear about every hate crime that occurs in the county.

"The problem is that people suffering homophobic abuse are often afraid that if they report a crime, they will end up being 'outed' through the courts and in the press. Other have an outdated perception of the police in regards to homosexuality and transgender issues.

"Historically, we have not been the most sensitive organisation in the world, but we have moved on tremendously from those days."

Last year, 165 incidents of gay hate crime and 12 of transgender hate crime were reported to Kent Police through trained officers and its dedicated homophobic incident reporting telephone line.

But while overall figures for sexual, racial, age and religious hate crime in Kent (1,150 from April '07 to March '08) is lower than the previous year, police fear many people are suffering in silence.

Mr Cronin added: "Sometimes the person being harassed does not necessarily want the perpetrators punished, they just want the abuse to stop, but there is legislation to protect them which doesn't have to go through the courts.

"The message is to have faith and confidence in us and report these crimes - face to face, online or over the phone. We will take care of it for them, but we cannot do anything about something we do not know about.

"Equally important is the message that in no way can this kind of abuse be tolerated."