An 18-year-old gay man is hospitalized in critical condition after three men ambushed him in a phony gay dating app hookup where they robbed him, disfigured his penis and set him on fire.
The teen told police officials in Jamaica he had connected with a man on the app and agreed to meet him in Flankers, a neighborhood in Montego Bay, St. James.
But when he arrived, three men ambushed him taking his phone and wallet, according to local newspaper The Sunday Gleaner.
Keeping the victim captive, the assailants attempted to use his bank card at an ATM to withdraw money. But they were unsuccessful.
A police officer told The Gleaner the men then forced the teen to transfer money into an account.
The incident then took a horribly violent turn as the men, who were reportedly drinking, poured alcohol on the young man and partially severed his penis before setting him on fire.
Left to die, the victim somehow made his way to a security checkpoint in the neighborhood at which point he was taken to the hospital where he remains in critical condition.
A man, who reportedly went to Flankers in Montego Bay, St James to meet a man he met on a gay dating site, is now in hospital in critical condition after he was abducted, robbed, had his penis partially severed, and then set on fire.
Read more: https://t.co/ytnGUQ1EqO #GLNRToday pic.twitter.com/6K5COPH2FV
— Jamaica Gleaner (@JamaicaGleaner) October 17, 2021
The Gleaner reports that this kind of calculated attack using gay dating apps isn’t new to Jamaica.
In January 2020, Allie Jackson, 43, was killed during a similar dating app meet-up. His body was found in a shallow grave a week after he’d gone missing.
Just last week in Dallas, Daniel Jenkins, 22, was sentenced to 23 years in prison for his part in a conspiracy to target gay men using Grindr.
Jenkins and three other men lured men to an apartment complex where they would force their victims to withdraw cash from a nearby ATM at gun point. Among the nine victims, some were physically assaulted and one had his car stolen.
LGBTQ Jamaicans have been vulnerable to sexual and physical violence for years according to reports from the Human Rights Watch.
In 2014, the group released a report documenting how queer people in Jamaica are often “taunted, threatened, fired from their jobs, thrown out of their homes, or worse: beaten, stoned, raped, or killed.”
Making matters worse, the government still has so-called “buggery laws” on the books which outlaws all male homosexual conduct.
Please be careful out there guys, tell someone you trust where your going.