Jayson Hastie, 25, has been ordered in Wollongong Local Court Magistrate to serve 20 months' in corrections , with a non-parole period of nine months. He had reportedly attracted the attention of an older man using a Grindr profile under the name of 'Alex', with an initial two weeks of messages and phone calls. He failed to attend a planned meet-up in March, a frequent occurrence with relationship SNS. At a subsequent meeting the man was greeted by one of Hastie’s friends. Hastie arrived a short time later, climbed into the backseat of the man's vehicle and introduced himself as 'Alex', claiming that he was an undercover police officer and told the man, "you have been pinged".
It is unclear what being "pinged" means but we might infer that Hastie had initially purported to be a minor. The Mercury reports that Hastie said a disc he was holding was a tracker that would bring other officers to their location, before stating "you don’t have to say anything, but whatever you do say can be used as evidence in court". Impersonation of a police officer is a specific offence under statute law in all jurisdictions.
The "terrified" victim told NSW police representatives that he agreed to Hastie’s demand for $2,000 (promptly withdrawing cash) and also agreed to provide continued financial "help" on a weekly basis. Hastie reportedly stated "If you don’t, all the transcripts [and] photos will be going to police,". Along with the friend Hastie searched the victim’s car before saying "if you ever do this again, I’ll find you and break your legs" and leaving.
Hastie has pleaded guilty to charges of demanding money with menace and impersonating a police officer, in exchange for prosecutors dropping a more serious charge of kidnapping. In impersonating a police officer, Hastie had contributed to an "undermining of the confidence the community might have in police officers".
There have been several instances of extortion involving gay social media, at least one involving the death of a victim of extortion.
In DKN v the State of Western Australia [2018] WASCA 87 the appellant and Mr N used Grindr to arrange a meeting with the victim, purportedly for consensual intimate activity.
With the appellant's consent, Mr N sent the victim a photograph of the appellant.
The appellant, Mr N and two other male alleged co-offenders, agreed that they would meet the victim with the common plan to beat him up. This assault was the subject of count 8. The victim arrived at the meeting location and the appellant stood waiting for him in front of some bushes in which the other three men hid. The victim approached and, recognising the appellant from the photograph, greeted the appellant. The three other men emerged from the bushes, approaching the victim. Mr N said something to the victim.
One of the alleged co-offenders then walked away.
The other walked behind the victim and struck him to the back of the head.The victim attempted to run away. Mr N tripped the victim, causing him to fall to the ground.
Mr N and one of the alleged co-offenders began to punch, kick and stomp on the victim's head, body and face. The appellant then punched the victim once in the face. The victim tried to protect himself by curling into the foetal position on the ground.
The appellant took the victim's wallet, removed his licence and gave it to Mr N. While recording the assault on his mobile phone, Mr N read the victim's name from his licence, demanding that the victim never do this again. The appellant then took $40 from the wallet. This act was the subject of count 10. One of the alleged co-offenders took the victim's house and car keys. The offenders then ran off.
The appellant and Mr N returned to the victim with the intention of taking his mobile phone. The victim handed it over after Mr N told him that if he did not he would kill him. The appellant and Mr N then ran away, stopping 100 metres from the victim. The appellant removed the phone's SIM card and handed the phone to Mr N. Mr N then stomped on the phone, smashing it, before placing it down a drain in the road. The destruction of the phone was the subject of count 12.
The victim suffered bleeding to the brain and was hospitalised. He sustained bruising to his face, back and arms and abrasions to his face, legs and arms. The victim's injuries were medically reported to be of such a nature as to endanger or be likely to endanger his life.In R v KB [2017] ACTSC 344 the Court notes
In early January 2017, the offender's younger brother (then 16 years old) created a profile on “ Grindr ”, a social networking app used by gay men to arrange romantic and/or sexual liaisons. The offender's brother stated that he was 18 years old or older, as the app required users to be adults.
On 7 January 2017, the offender's brother “met” the victim through the profile. They “befriended” each other on Facebook. The offender's brother said that he wanted to meet the victim in person and they arranged to meet at the playing fields at Mawson.
The offender drove his brother to the agreed meeting place. The offender exited the car, approached the front driver's side of the victim's car and said “Hi, I'm the paedophile hunter... you have come here to see my little brother, he is only 15.” The offender threatened to publicly release details of the Grindr exchanges between the victim and the offender's brother, which included images.
As this conversation was occurring, the offender's brother left the offender’s car and approached the offender and the victim, holding a mobile telephone. He recorded the conversation between the offender and the victim.
The offender said to the victim, “we can sort this out; you don't have to ruin your life.” He continued to threaten to publish on social media the conversations and images that had been exchanged. He said that he would have the victim arrested and would ruin his life.
After protesting that he had done nothing wrong, the victim attempted to enter his vehicle to leave. The offender leaned against the front driver side door and prevented the victim from doing so. However, the victim managed to force open the front driver door and enter the vehicle. As the victim drove off, the offender and his brother called out “we are going to ruin your life”.
When he was exiting the car park, the victim stopped his vehicle. The offender and his brother approached. The victim used his mobile telephone to photograph them. The offenders repeated that, “we can sort it out; you don't have to ruin your life.” When the victim asked what they wanted, the offenders indicated that they wanted money. The victim drove away.
The victim continued to receive messages from the Grindr account in the name of the offender's brother. One of the messages said, “[w]ould you ruin your life just for $150, is it worth it?” .... In February 2017, police executed search warrants at the residence of the offender and his brother. Police searched the offender’s vehicle, where they located a printed piece of paper containing explicit Facebook message exchanges between the Facebook account operated in the name of the offender's brother an unidentified male.The Canberra Times in reporting on other instances of blackmail by KB's associates commented
A teenager used as "bait" to lure a man who died by suicide hours after he was blackmailed by a group of males who targeted men on a gay hook-up app and threatened to out them as paedophiles will spend four months in detention.
The boy, now 17, was the fifth person to plead guilty after police this year cracked a syndicate for vowing to publicly "out" men, who they trapped through apps including Grindr, as child molesters if they didn't hand over mobile phones or cash.
He had been driven by greed when he asked the scam's teen "ringleader" to get involved, the ACT Childrens' Court was told on Monday. ...
The boy was among offenders who ensnared the man through social media and arranged a meeting at Mawson shops the night of January 20.
When the man arrived, the boys showed him a dossier compiled on him and said they would publish messages and expose him as a paedophile before they fled with his mobile phone and $400.
Not satisfied with that haul, he was among several boys who later showed up at the man's house to put further pressure on him before they were scared away by his brother.
The victim was found dead the next afternoon.
Police arrested the offender after they found the victim's phone in the boy's bedroom in April this year. He admitted to blackmail and unlawful possession of stolen property.In August SBS reported Timothy Ruge, 34, pleaded guilty in Melbourne Magistrates Court to making an unwarranted demand for money with menace, having demanded $1300 from a Grindr user in return for not telling the victim's girlfriend.
Ruge - who presumably knew the victim - allegedly responded to contact by sending an image of the victim's fiancee, commenting: "She's pretty, you cheating bastard". The victim apologised; Ruge demanded "Cardless cash me $500 now, then $500 in 30 mins Are We Clear", followed by "And I vanish". The victim said he didn't have the money, explaining "she handles all my money", with Ruge apparently responding "tick tock I'll ask her for it then shall I. Tick tock".
The men then arranged to meet at Southern Cross Station, with the victim handing over $200 - apparently captured on CCTV - and Ruge deleting the messages, only to ask for a further $300 in a message six minutes later, with the victim then reporting to the police.
Ruge is elsewhere reported to have characterised the matter as an “unfortunate circumstance”.
In Landon v R [2018] NZCA 264 the NZ Court of Appeal notes
The complainant had been deceived into believing he would be meeting a young man he had been exchanging text messages with. When the complainant went to open the gate, however, he was ambushed by M1 (who was armed with a shotgun), M2 (who was carrying a baton) and Ms Landon. The complainant was then taken back to his apartment and subjected to degrading and homophobic abuse over an extended period, and threatened with serious violence. As the offenders departed, they stole multiple items of property, including the complainant’s car.
