Homophobic thugs disfigure teen’s penis and set him on fire after luring him on dating app
Police tape. (Getty)
Homophobic thugs brutally disfigured a man’s penis and set him on fire after arranging to meet on a queer dating app in Jamaica.
The teenage victim told police how he connected with a man on the app and agreed to meet in Flankers, a neighbourhood in Montego Bay, St James.
But what was meant to be a night of frivolity and fun ended with the teen being ambushed, his mobile phone, wallet and other possessions stolen, and his body set ablaze last Monday (11 October).
Law enforcement told The Sunday Gleaner, a local newspaper, that the attackers attempted to use the victim’s bank card at a nearby ATM.
“They were unsuccessful,” a police officer told the paper. “So they returned looking to where they were holding their victim and, on this occasion, he was forced to transfer money into an account they gave him.”
Man ‘lucky’ to have survived being set on fire by homophobes, says police officer
Between sips of alcohol, the assailants poured their drinks over the young man and partially severed his genitals before lighting him on fire.
Left to die, the victim dragged himself to a nearby security checkpoint where officers sped him to hospital where he remains in “critical condition”.
The victim, the officer added, is a “very lucky young man” to have survived the ambush.
Investigators told the outlet that they are searching for three suspects, one being the man the victim intended to meet.
Such incidents of queer men being targeted via dating apps is nothing new in Jamaica, the force said.
The death of Allie Jackson, a 43-year-old warehouse manager, in 2020 sparked fear in the St James LGBT+ community.
Jackson was killed after he went out for an anonymous hook-up during his lunch break.
“But he never returned,” the officer said, “and he went missing.”
His body was found just days later in a shallow grave in Granville, while the charred remains of his car were found nearby.
Two men – 19-year-old Patrick Williams and 22-year-old Tasico Vassell – were arrested and charged with Jackson’s death.
Police fear that Jackson’s murder has since provided thugs with a blueprint to carry out identical attacks.
Such violence against LGBT+ Jamaican is to be expected, activists say, considering that the Caribbean island nation still outlaws same-sex intercourse – punishable by a decade-long jail sentence.
Such laws, artifacts of British colonial rule, actually cost the country $11 billion per year, according to public policy think-tanks.
