In determining the appropriate sentence for an offender, the court is to take into account, as an aggravating circumstance in relation to the offence, whether the offence was motivated to any degree by –

(a) hatred for or prejudice against, on racial grounds, any victim of the offence; or

(b) hatred for or prejudice against, on racial grounds, a person or group of persons with whom at the relevant time any victim of the offence was associated or believed by the offender to have been associated.