A Canberra man who was the victim of a gay hate crime more than forty years ago says investigations into recent homophobic assaults in the capital are alarming. ACT Policing say the men were injured in separate attacks by a group of males after using the dating app 'Grindr'.
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00:00It was the early 80s when a young Richard Allen agreed to meet up with a man he'd met
00:07at a gay bar in Canberra, but he was tricked and attacked.
00:11I was young, I was innocent, he's made for our side. He had it all planned, he already
00:16knew what he was going to do.
00:18Richard knows too many people who've been attacked because of their sexuality in the
00:23past, but police say it's still happening.
00:26We're issuing a warning to the community after what we believe are two targeted attacks
00:30on men in the past week.
00:32The first incident saw a man attacked by a group of four men at an empty home in Denman
00:37Prospect. The other victim was set upon by eight men at another abandoned address at
00:42Red Hill.
00:43Both incidents happened after the men, matched with what police now suspect was a fake profile
00:49on the dating app Grindr.
00:51We're fairly certain they're homophobic attacks, which is concerning. There were homophobic
00:56slurs used by the offenders in these matters.
01:00Police say there could be more victims who haven't reported yet.
01:03I know a lot of guys who have been bashed, but they didn't report it because they didn't
01:09want to be outed.
01:10We'd love to think that homophobia is done and dusted, but sadly it's not.
01:15Advocacy groups say it's an unfortunate reminder for dating app users to protect their safety.
01:21People have trusted, acted in good faith, to then have acts of violence conducted against
01:29them.
01:30ACT Police say they've contacted Grindr to work out just what sort of information they
01:34can obtain from the app's data. But the LGBTQI community that Grindr serves says the app
01:42needs to prioritise safety.
01:44Companies who own all these sites, they need to be accountable.
01:51Richard wants users to be better informed about how they're using the app.
01:54I love my community, don't get me wrong, I love them and I think the world of them, but
01:59I just want them to be careful.
02:01Police want to catch the offenders and prevent more attacks. Anyone with information is being
02:05urged to contact them.