WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
Groups of teenagers and young men are using dating apps such as Grindr to lure, violently assault and rob men in Melbourne parks before posting footage they capture of the attacks on social media.
Police said at least 35 arrests had been made around Melbourne for assault, robbery, false imprisonment and even extortion in a new form of homophobic violence in which perpetrators are often using apps such as TikTok to post and boast about their crimes.
Groups of teenagers and young men are using dating apps to lure, violently assault and rob men in Melbourne parks before posting footage they capture of the disturbing attacks on social media.Credit: Eddie Jim
Police LGBTIQA+ communities portfolio manager Jeremy Oliver said most of the cases would be classified as hate crimes, which could be considered as an aggravating factor when the matters are dealt with in court.
Oliver said the attacks had caused many in LGBTIQA+ communities to become fearful and hypervigilant.
“What’s happening in Victoria for rainbow communities is happening across Australia and across the world,” Oliver said.
“It impacts on our sense of safety because it’s obviously not just people who use Grindr that are affected.”
On Tuesday a Victorian children’s court heard details for the first time of a vicious crime spree, led by a group of teenagers against lone male victims who agreed to meet in a park with someone they encountered on a same-sex dating app.
In each case, shortly after the victim arrived at the park at night, they were confronted by youths hiding in bushes or nearby. In one incident, a then 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, matched with a man on Grindr on October 11 last year.
The court was told that after a short conversation on the app, the pair agreed to meet at Donvale Reserve in Melbourne’s east.
The prosecution told the court the victim was set upon by six teenagers before falling to the ground as he was punched, kicked and stomped on. As he lay on the ground, the teenagers taunted him, yelling out homophobic slurs and calling him a “b---h” and a “paedophile”.
The 17-year-old who initiated contact with the victim then threatened the man with a pair of scissors, demanding his mobile phone PIN code.
As the youths threatened to “poke out his eyes”, the victim handed over his phone.
He was taken to hospital with suspected broken ribs and a suspected broken cheek bone.
The 17-year-old pleaded guilty to charges including unlawful assault, recklessly causing injury, threats to kill, affray and imprisonment.
Oliver said police had made more than 35 arrests for similar assaults over the past two years.
He said the assaults were almost identical across several outer-suburban municipalities, which suggested the attackers were communicating with each other via encrypted messaging services such as Telegram.
One victim, James, not his real name, said he responded to an invitation from a Grindr profile last October and agreed to meet a man at a reserve in Highett in Melbourne’s south-east.
When he arrived at the park, he was ambushed by two young men wielding weapons, while another filmed.
“I curled up in a ball and tried to protect myself, but it’s all a bit of a blur,” he said. “They were going for my head and they split me open. I got up a few times and tried to run but kept falling over. They were laughing at me as I was screaming for help.”
James said he was unable to comprehend the capacity for such hatred among some young men.
“I’m disgusted that a lot of the community still doesn’t accept us. I’m not flamboyant, I don’t put it in people’s faces and I don’t understand why anyone would want to do this,” he said.
“There was a growing acceptance of the gay community, particularly among younger generations, but it feels like that’s hit a brick wall. It has a lot to do with toxic masculinity, where young people post and boast online to get street cred,” he said.
In a separate case, detailed in the Children’s Court, another 17-year-old boy pleaded guilty to charges including unlawful assault, recklessly causing injury and robbery offences.
The court was told a victim matched with one of the teenagers on Grindr in October last year. The pair agreed to match for a consensual sexual encounter at a park in Box Hill. When the victim arrived, he was struck in the face and fell to the ground before being punched, kicked and having his head stomped on.
One teenager pointed a machete at the man, while another hit him with a metal stick. The victim tried to flee but was tackled to the ground and put in a chokehold by the 17-year-old, the court heard.
Graphic footage of the attack, which was played to the court, showed the victim curled up on the ground in the dark park, his face covered in blood and trousers pulled down, while the teenagers violently assaulted him as he screamed for help.
The cases mirror a spate of similar crimes reported this year in NSW, where investigators discovered videos were being posted to TikTok and Instagram accounts that purport to be part of a trend known as “paedo hunting”.
In sentencing the two 17-year-old boys to 12-month probation orders on Tuesday, the presiding judge said the teenagers’ conduct was “cowardly and violent”.
“Why do it? Why hurt another person to that extent?” he asked the pair. “To be able to see the fear that each of the victims have … Why do it twice? Why do it once?
“None of you had any empathy ... for the pain, humiliation and fear you were inflicting.”
The judge said he remained baffled why two young people from supportive and stable families would embark on such vicious attacks.
The Age can also reveal that earlier this month, three men, Abdullah Bloch, Albin Idrizi and Madhi Nowruzi, all aged 20, pleaded guilty to charges including kidnapping, armed robbery and assault-related offences at the Victorian County Court.
At a hearing on May 16, disturbing details of their crimes were aired in court for the first time including how the trio lured men into parks or quiet streets after connecting with them on dating sites including Grindr and Scruff using fake profiles before brutally assaulting and robbing them.
In at least one of the cases detailed in court, a victim was falsely told that he was meeting a 15-year-old boy. Graphic video footage of his assault, captured on a smartphone, was played to the court.
It showed the victim, aged in his 50s, arriving at a park at night in Melbourne’s south-east, where he was set upon by the men, who accused him of sexual misconduct and being a paedophile. The man is seen screaming and pleading for his life in the footage as he is violently assaulted, choked and then beaten with a metal pole.
In the background, one of the men can be heard saying: “You came here to have sex with a 15-year-old. Keep your voice down. You’re going to get f----d, not us.”
As he sits cowering on the ground with his hands over his face, the victim is forced to say homophobic slurs and his attackers tell him to ask “Jesus for forgiveness”.
“If you call the cops, it’s not going to end well for you,” one of the accused can be heard saying to him. “We went easy on you.”
The victim asks if the men have assaulted others. “Yeah, we’ve done this before,” one of the accused can be heard responding.
During the lengthy assault the men forced the victim to transfer $8000 to them using his smartphone. They also stole $10, his mobile phone, and his wallet. The victim was taken to hospital with a fractured eye socket, fractured nose, bruises and swelling, the court heard.
In a different case detailed in the County Court another man went to a park in Melbourne’s south-east in September last year, where he was confronted by Bloch, Idrizi, and Nowruzi.
Smartphone footage captured of the attack showed the man being spat on and assaulted.
As the victim lay on the ground, his shoes were ripped off, and the accused men told him he was a “filthy animal” and a paedophile.
In a third case, footage captured another attack on a victim who had gone to a quiet street to meet with one of the accused. When he arrived, he was set upon by the same men. Footage shows him running back to his car as the men attack him. As he drives off, they zoom in on a sticker on his car that advertises his business.
Bloch, Idrizi, and Nowruzi will be sentenced at a later date.
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