Perth man lured to park on Grindr, then ‘beaten up’ by men yelling anti-gay slurs
Code words and symbols are used to refer to drugs on the app (Leon Neal/Getty Images)
A man from Perth was reportedly assaulted by a group of men in a park, after he was targeted on gay dating app Grindr.
The unnamed man had been talking to another Grindr user on the night of Friday July 20, and they agreed to meet up following their conversation, reports Out in Perth.
The man reportedly then drove to their agreed location, but was lured into Bennett Park, which was nearby.
He was allegedly attacked by a group of young men, who shouted anti-gay insults at him, including calling the man a “fag” and accusing him of being a “pedo.”
The man was left with potential bone fractures on his face, a black eye, and bruises, according to Out in Perth.
The group also tried to steal the man’s wallet, but he managed to get away and escape in his car.
The violence is similar to a string of five attacks on gay and bisexual men in the city’s suburbs in 2017.
Following these attacks, James Joseph Katchan, 20, was given a six-year prison sentence, and Cody Parkinson, 19, was sentenced to two years in prison.
A man was lured into Bennett Park (pictured) on Grindr and attacked on Friday. (Google Maps)
In 2013, Perth resident Warren Batchelor was murdered after being attacked when he was having sex with another man in a public toilet in a park.
The perpetrators, Daniel Wade Taylor and Mark Jones, received life prison sentences for the killing.
In the UK, there have been a number of rapes and attacks of gay and bisexual men targeted on dating apps.
In November 2016, so-called ‘Grindr serial killer’ Stephen Port was handed a life prison sentence for the murders of four men he met on gay dating sites. All four men were killed in the Barking area east London, where Port lived.
In June, a man was jailed 23 years after drugging four men he met on gay dating app Grindr – and raping three of them – in the Portsmouth area.
Sam Ashley, 30, carried out the rapes on three different men during a horrific six-month sex attack spree in 2016.
The court heard how Ashley had told some of his victims that he had terminal colon cancer, in a bid to get their sympathy.
Ashley was convicted of drugging and twice raping a university student he had met on the dating up to go jogging with, as well as raping and drugging another man he met for a threesome, who took what Ashley had told him was paracetamol for a headache.
In recent years, there have been a number of rapes and attacks on men using gay dating app Grindr. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)
He was also sentenced for raping – and trying to rape a further two times – a man with HIV, who he drugged with GHB, and drugging another man who awoke to see “a number of sex toys on the bed” with Ashley.
