A COMMUNITY café which gives opportunities to young people with learning disablities has been left shocked after ‘disgusting’ graffiti was daubed on the ground outside the building.

Yesterday lunchtime, staff and passers-by at the Café Dome, in Brighton Hill, discovered the words ‘retards only’ scraped into the floor outside the building.

The community café, which is run by charity The Café Project, gives students affected by learning disabilities with the opportunity to get work experience in a catering environment.

Carl Manners, manager at Café Dome, said: “This is a disgusting thing to write. Even though it was written in chalk and came off easily, that isn’t the point. It was the fact that this was done in this day and age.”

After sending some of their students off on one of the minibuses at about 12.15pm and not seeing any of the vulgar graffiti, Carl and the rest of the students then busied themselves with the lunchtime rush.

It was only when a passer-by walked in at about 2.30pm to inform Carl what was written outside that they realised that something was wrong.

Carl added: “The audacity to do this in the middle of day, what do they even get out of it?”

Lisa Willmot, one of the trustees at The Café Project, added: “It was not the nicest thing for our staff and students to have to see. It is shocking that this would be happening in the 21st century, but some people are still in their ignorance, I suppose.

“They are just a vocal minority in a society that is mostly accepting.”

Since café staff put a photo of the words on its Facebook page, there has been a massive outpouring of community support.

Carl said: “We’re an inclusive establishment at the heart of the community, and the response that we have had is outstanding, over 25,000 people have seen the post on Facebook. A lot of them were outraged, but we have a positive community as well. The Scouts have offered to help us, and a gentleman was so outraged that he called to offer some help as well.

“It’s been a great response and it gets the word out that this has happened.

“It is a real shame that this has taken place.”

Lisa added: “I suppose that we get the last laugh as this has given us a boost on social media.

“We create a positive environment for our students, and we will carry on. Our attitude is that this is their loss for their ignorance. Our students aren’t being played as the victim, they are our employees and we are trying to give them the same opportunities that others enjoy.

“We are well-supported locally and the goodwill of our local community far outweighs the occasional negativity that we receive.”

The incident hasn’t been reported to the police, although if there was evidence, then ‘it would be a very different story’, according to Carl.