The actions of a group of young men who posted “video montages” of assaults on gay men they had lured through Grindr have been described as “a hate crime”.
They were part of a trend of posting “vigilante” videos, in which they claimed they were targeting paedophiles.
They called themselves the “Tauranga Paedophile Catchers” and it’s understood they drew inspiration from United States TV show To Catch A Predator.
However, in their offending, they weren’t running sting operations to have people arrested.
Instead, they created fake profiles on Grindr and arranged meetings with men where they would assault them, film it and post it on social media, sometimes accompanied by music and subtitles.
The summary of facts said other similar groups were doing the same in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
In Tauranga, Thomas Bull, Ethan Jeffs and Patrick Moloney had varied roles and levels of culpability, but all faced charges of assault, injuring with intent to injure and posting a harmful digital communication. They have all now been sentenced in the Tauranga District Court.
Look.
I don’t want to judge a book by its cover, but sweet Jesus these Tauranga Grindr thugs look aggressively heterosexual, terribly repressed and a tad inbred don’t they?
I mean these are 2 straight guys who desperately need the queer eye when it came to dressing for Court didn’t they?
They look like real little cross burners from Tauranga don’t they?
How charming and brave to gang up and jump gay men at night.
The leniency in their sentencing is astounding, I think mercy should be expressed in Court when you lose the plot in a moment of stress, but these little pricks pre-planned and premeditated their hate crimes.
I wonder if they would have seen such leniency if they had been Mฤori?
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, soย if you value having an independent voice โ please donate here.
Younger versions of Chris Bishop and Seymour.
Cletus and the Zit
While your portrayal of these thugs is fair, I wouldn’t advise men seeking casual sex with younger men online as a wise choice either. “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” did not work out well for Israel in the book of Judges, and it can only have the same result today, although it might take a bit longer.