Judge blasts dating app assaults on gay men as ‘horrific example of groupthink'
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
A judge has blasted the actions of three young men who used dating apps like Grindr to lure, violently assault and rob men in Melbourne parks as a horrific example of groupthink.
Abdullah Bloch, Albin Idrizi and Madhi Nowruzi, all aged 20, pleaded guilty to charges including kidnapping, armed robbery and assault-related offences at the County Court of Victoria, claiming their actions were a case of 'mistaken vigilantism' against men they suspected to be sex offenders.
However, Judge Simon Moglia flatly dismissed the claim saying there was 'no reasonable basis' for them holding that view.
'I find that your offending can only be understood as a horrific example of groupthink and immature, misguided, mutual peer pressure aimed at attacking individual men in vulnerable circumstances in order to make 'easy money',' he said.
In May, police said at least 35 arrests had been made around Melbourne for assault, robbery, false imprisonment and even extortion in a new form of homophobic violence in which perpetrators use apps such as TikTok to post and boast about their crimes.
At a previous hearing, the court heard disturbing details of the trio's crimes including how they lured men into parks or quiet streets after connecting with them on dating sites including Grindr and Scruff, using fake profiles before brutally assaulting and robbing them.
In one incident, a victim aged in his 50s was falsely told that he was meeting a 15-year-old boy after first matching with one of the men who used a fake profile of a 22-year-old man.
Graphic video footage of his assault, captured on a smartphone, showed the victim being set upon by the men, who accused him of sexual misconduct and being a paedophile. The man is seen screaming and pleading for his life as he is violently assaulted, choked and then beaten with a metal pole.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
7NEWS
13 hours ago
- 7NEWS
Human remains located in search for Sunbury man Joshua Bishop missing for a month
Human remains have been located in the search for a young man who has not been seen in a month. Joshua Bishop, 23, was last seen by his housemate on Lalor Cres in Sunbury, northwest of Melbourne, at about 9.30pm on May 27. He was then reported missing by his mother two days later. There have been extensive searches at a park in Broadmeadows as his phone was tracked there on the same day he was last seen, but nothing was located. However on Saturday, police discovered human remains following the execution of a warrant at a home in Westmeadows. A 27-year-old man was arrested and is expected to be interviewed about the remains, which are yet to be formally identified. Police said the investigation is ongoing. Bishop's family had been using social media to spread the word about his disappearance, with a dedicated TikTok and Facebook page gaining traction. His parents previously made an emotional public plea for his return, with his father Travis saying they just wanted him home safe. 'We want him to know we love him, we're here for him,' he said. 'I don't know how people go through this.'
Herald Sun
a day ago
- Herald Sun
Kylie Lang on why social media has made the world a worse place
Remember when the sneakiest thing you could do on social media was to use a filter to enhance a photo and not tell anyone? Bung on a bit of Clarendon, Juno or Valencia and make your images pop. Then it became cool, even though some people clearly cheated, to use the hashtag #nofilter – as if you were really a closet photographic genius. Ah, Instagram, how tame you were back in the day – 2010, that is, a mere 15 years ago. Now, as social media platforms have multiplied so has the deceit they allow people to portray as true. And I'm talking about more than the 'look-at-me-and-my-fabulous-life-bet-you're-jealous' posts. Social media has become sinister and the minds of users have become sicker. You might say it's chicken and egg stuff – which came first? – but I'd wager that anti-social behaviour of the chronic kind we've been seeing recently is a direct result of these unregulated online platforms. The greed of profit-ravenous tech giants has decimated human decency. Bullying like never before, revenge porn, deepfake nudes and the online abuse of children including by other children are bordering on commonplace. But as those of us who recall life before social media rightly demand better responses – from our schools, our parents, our politicians and critically the tech behemoths – there is another degree of moral corruption going on. Let me give you two examples. When a young man allegedly brutally attacked a middle-aged bus driver last Friday evening at Brisbane's South Bank station, passengers were eager to film it. The distressing footage was then uploaded to social media. Did no passenger think to immediately go to the driver's aid? Why was their first thought, where's my phone? The lure of a twisted type of fame on social media is strong. We see it also when students are brawling on school grounds. Rather than break up fights, onlookers are hanging back and filming them. They're getting kicks out of another's suffering and using it to boost their social media engagement. Now to the case of a Queensland mother accused of torturing her baby for social media kudos. The 34-year-old was charged in January over allegedly drugging her infant to get clicks and money from the content she posted on TikTok. As if those allegations aren't horrendous enough, this week The Courier-Mail revealed a number of people have created copycat social media accounts. The fake accounts use the family's name and previously posted images and videos. Pathetic? You bet. David Tuffley, who lectures in applied ethics and cyber security at Griffith University, says there is 'a thriving black market' for TikTok accounts. The aim of these fakes, Dr Tuffley says, is to attract followers then monetise the accounts through advertising, soliciting donations or selling them on the black market. Staggering to think from October to December last year, TikTok stopped more than 10.47 billion fake likes on its content due to inauthentic engagement and fake accounts activity, according to Statista data. Stan Karanasios, a professor in information systems at the UQ Business School, says there is no way of knowing how many fake accounts exist but the motive is to 'piggyback' on a person's legitimacy to 'lure people into believing you are trustworthy and (to) engage in scams and malicious activities'. What a world we live in. I wish we could shut down social media and make phones dumb again. I wish TV shows like SeaChange and Seinfeld were being seen for the first time. I wish people would escape to the country and not whine about the Wi-Fi. But just as we can't turn back time, we have to be present to what's happening now. We cannot let ourselves be conditioned to accept heinous behaviour as the new norm simply because of the prevalence of it online. There are many education programs around social media use, positive parenting in the digital age and how to keep yourself safe online – but they are not enough. Until tech giants are properly held to account, people will continue to be pawns. Kylie Lang is Associate Editor of The Courier-Mail Originally published as Kylie Lang on why social media has made the world a worse place
7NEWS
2 days ago
- 7NEWS
‘I started to feel numb': Woman recalls syringe attack at French music festival
It was around 1.30am, after the crowds had thinned from the streets of Bordeaux, when Manon felt the prick of a hypodermic needle going into her arm. 'Someone tapped my left forearm. I started to feel numb in the muscle, like you do when you get a vaccine. After about 30 minutes, the injection mark appeared,' she said. Despite not knowing what she had been injected with – or who had done it – she said she 'didn't want to panic.' Manon, 22, was one of nearly 150 people in France who reported being pricked with syringes during a nationwide street music festival at the weekend. According to the interior ministry, it remains unclear if date-rape drugs such as Rohypnol or GHB were used in the 'needle spiking' attacks, which took place across the country and appear to have involved multiple perpetrators. Ahead of the festival, which drew crowds of millions of people to the streets, a feminist influencer had warned that calls had been made on social media for women to be targeted with syringes. After spending 4am to 7am on Sunday in the emergency room, Manon shared a video of her experience on TikTok. 'It was important for me to raise awareness, because I hadn't seen any testimonies from people who had been injected,' said Manon, who declined to give her last name for safety reasons. 'We had been told on social media to be careful, but I think people want to know more – how it happens, the symptoms, how it unfolds. 'It reassured me to talk about it, because at the time, I was completely alone.' 'I told myself I wasn't going to let it defeat me' After she got home from the hospital, Manon filed a police report. 'It's important because if we're too lax, if we say, 'oh, others will file complaints', nothing ever changes. I told myself maybe it can have an impact.' Since Saturday, French police have detained 14 men aged between 19 and 44 and including both French citizens and foreign nationals, police spokeswoman Agathe Foucault told Radio France. But authorities have made no arrests in connection with the needle spikings. 'The police have not identified any perpetrators behind the injections, but the incidents are confirmed,' Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin told CNN affiliate BFMTV Tuesday. The minister said authorities would also pursue those who had called for the attacks online. 'We are implementing a criminal policy to prosecute those responsible on social media for these very unhealthy injection games targeting women,' Darmanin said. The feminist influencer Abrège Soeur, who before the festival had warned men on social media were planning such attacks, told CNN the perpetrators' 'objective isn't only to drug women. It's to instill fear in them.' 'When people start saying that there will be needle attacks, it spreads in the form of rumor,' she said. 'Some people mention it in group chats, others pick it up, it just gets amplified.' Manon, who faces a wait of three weeks for her toxicology results, said she had 'barely slept the last few days' but refuses to be cowed by her experience. 'The Fête de la Musique is meant to be a time of good vibes, music, dancing, having fun. Someone wanted to ruin that moment, to kill that spirit. I told myself I wasn't going to let it defeat me. I don't want to be sad or angry. I don't want to let them win.'
