Grindr Scammer Sentenced To 19 Months In Jail For Blackmail

It seems like everyone needs to be careful out there. Young under aged men have lied about their age to "get with" older men.  We've all received the messages before. But in a recent court case, we find that it wasn't a bump and grind these under age males were looking for.  They were looking for older men they wanted to make into victims.  One victim would take his own life because of the teens' actions.

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A 17-year-old Canberra boy who pleaded guilty to blackmailing men using the gay dating app Grindr, including one who went on to take his own life, has been sentenced to six months in detention.

The Canberra teenager pleaded guilty to blackmailing two men, as well as growing cannabis in his bedroom, in the ACT Children's Court earlier this week.

The boy and three others, including his older brother, were charged after they demanded money from men they had lured using the app, and then threatening to accuse them of being child molesters. One of the youths told an alleged victim the group were "pedo hunters", according to police. Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker today described the boy's crime as callous.

The first blackmail charge against the boy was related to a man he and his brother arranged to meet through Grindr. The second charge was related to the blackmail of a man who went on to commit suicide. The boy threatened the victim with a dossier he had made which detailed social media exchanges, images and excerpts of ACT laws. The group met the man at the Mawson shops where they threatened to release the material unless he handed over money and his phone. They later went to the man's house where one of the group threatened to call the police. The 17-year-old then continued to issue threats to the man on Facebook, but those were posted after the man had taken his own life.

Police described the 17-year-old as the leader of the group after finding dossiers he compiled on the victims, recording who was targeted and how much they had paid. The court heard he appeared to have several motives from financial gain, retribution over his father's abuse as a child and a hatred of gay men who he said were all paedophiles.

Chief Magistrate Walker said "(the boy) seems to have an immature view that has conflated homosexuality and paedophilia". She also expressed concern about a pre-sentence report suggesting he did not think differently, even now. Ms Walker told the court she did not believe rehabilitation could be achieved through supervision.

The boy was formally sentenced to 19 months, but with time already served and a suspended sentence he will only spend another three months behind bars.

Three others charged over the scam are still before the court. – abc.net.au

 

What do you say to kids looking to hook up?

Do you immediately block? Do you counsel?

Or do you follow through and meet, risking becoming like the victims mentioned above?

2 thoughts on “Grindr Scammer Sentenced To 19 Months In Jail For Blackmail”

  1. I was helping out this 18

    I was helping out this 18 year old twink a few years ago, we never had sex but I gave him a job and let him stay with me a few weeks and we hung out. He was a slut and everyone on Grindr around here that tops and do hook ups had already banged him when he was in high school starting at 16, even this couple I know had tag teamed him, all bareback, age or race did not matter.  Some kids like the d I guess… 

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  2. There’s been a couple who

    There's been a couple who message me and I'm only 25 and I tell them all the same thing. Get the fuck off this app is basically the gist of the lecture I end up giving them. And then I report them for being underage.

    Reply

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