Internet Date Turned Out to be Gay Basher

A British man who had met what he thought was a prospective date online was assaulted, and his car vandalized, when he arrived at a park for an in-person encounter.

The 50-year-old unnamed victim had been corresponding with the alleged assailant via an online gay chat service, a March 18 article at the British new site Nuneaton News reported. When the victim arrived at the agreed-upon place, a park in the town of Burbage, at around 8:00 p.m. on the evening of March 14, he was confronted by four men who ordered him to surrender his money and proceeded to beat him. The victim told the men that he had no money with him, and they left the scene; the victim's car was later found to have been vandalized.

The victim sought help from a nearby residence. He was treated at a hospital for his injuries, and released.

"It is appalling to think that this man was purposely targeted because of his sexual orientation, and we want the suspects to know that it is not something that we will tolerate," said Detective Constable Pete Watson. "It is always worth remembering that if you arrange to meet someone via an Internet chat room that you should never go alone and always meet in a public place," the officer added. "We would like anyone else who may have been a victim of an incident similar to this to call us immediately."

Similar incidents of violence in which gay men have been lured to remote places and then beaten or robbed have made headlines over the last few years in the United States. In October of 2006, four men used an Internet chat room to coax a gay man, 29-year-old Michael J. Sandy, to an isolated spot in Sheepshead Bay, an area of Brooklyn. The men beat Sandy and attempted to rob him; Sandy fled, but was struck and killed when he ran into traffic. The alleged assailants were tried on hate crimes charges.

In another incident that took place in New York, a resident of Queens, Michael Pecora, was found stabbed to death in his apartment. Police later arrested Alexys Fermaintt, who allegedly had been hired by Pecora online for sex and companionship.

One Internet service in particular, Craigslist, was associated with several high-profile crimes. In one instance, New York newsman George Weber solicited a heterosexual teenager to participate in rough sex sessions for a fee; the young man he hired, 16-year-old John Katehis, a bladed weapons enthusiast, stabbed Weber an estimated 50 times. Weber's body was discovered two days later.

Most infamous was the so-called Craigslist Killer, a serial murderer who hired a female massage therapist through the popular online service, and then shot her to death in a hotel room on April 14, 2009. A student at the Boston University School of Medicine, Philip Markoff, was arrested in connection with the case; Markoff was also charged in the robbery of a female professional escort in Boston, and the attempted robbery of an exotic dancer in Warwick, Rhode Island. It was believed that the perpetrator had contacted all three victims through Craigslist. A claim was also made by at least one man who said that Markoff had answered a Craigslist ad looking for "males for transsexuals" and had sent explicit photos of himself.