WARNING: This article discusses suicide. If you are in distress, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
The mother of a son who died by suicide after being targeted by a Grindr extortion ring has given a devastating victim’s impact statement before the court.
If you haven’t been following the story out of Canberra, a 17-year-old teen has pleaded guilty to two counts of blackmail, after targeting gay men on dating apps and then threatening to out the men publicly as paedophiles if they didn’t hang over cash and/or mobile phones.
Three other people involved in the ring are yet to be sentenced, but the 17-year-old, who was 16 when the trial started, is believed to be the ringleader.
Their actions led one of their victims to kill himself, weeks before police arrested the four people involved in February.
The Canberra Times, which has been doing some stella reporting on this case, reports that his devastated mother sobbed in court as she read out a victim impact statement.
“My beautiful, kind, gentle and loving son was snatched away from life,” she wrote. “I often think of his last moments. He must have been so distraught and in such fear.”
She said that she found it hard to sleep, often broke down in tears, and was “overwhelmed by the horror of it all.” She also said she couldn’t bear to tell her son’s elderly grandparents, who live overseas, about her son’s death, a “kind deception” she said would haunt her.
“My heart is heavy all of the time and I feel this will be with me for the rest of my life. The loss of a child in such circumstances is horrendous. I am in such pain and grief.”
Source: Canberra Times.
Photo: Leon Neal / Getty.
