The chief executive of LGBTIQ+ health organisation Thorne Harbour Health, Simon Ruth has called for a nationally coordinated response to the Grindr attacks, which have now occurred across Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Canberra. Dubbed ‘posting and boasting’, the homophobic assaults are being carried out by teenagers and young men who lure their victims via Grindr and Skruff before bashing and robbing them, filming a forced confession to being a paedophile and then uploading it to social media. “It seems to be escalating to more violent attacks,” said Ruth. “Somebody needs to be tracking the fact that this seems coordinated across the country.” Alarmingly, investigators have allegedly found evidence of gay hate crimes on the phones belonging to the members of a group that includes the 16-year-old boy who stabbed firebrand preacher Mar Mari Emmanuel in a Wakeley church last April.
