Melbourne man Timothy Ruge has narrowly avoided time in jail after pleading guilty to blackmail, over threats he made to reveal the identity of a man he met on the gay dating app Grindr.
In March of last year, an anonymous Grindr user struck up a conversation with 35-year-old Ruge, who then threatened to show screenshots of the chat to the man’s fiancée.
He sent an image of the woman to his victim, saying “she’s pretty you cheating bastard”, and then demanding a cash payment of $200 for his silence.
The pair met at Southern Cross Station, where the victim handed over the money, but Ruge later demanded more, and eventually, the victim went to police.
In handing down her sentence yesterday, Victorian County Court judge Lisa Hannan said that he exhibited “aggressive, at times threatening, and at other times taunting behaviour.”
“In my view it’s clear that your motivation was money and you saw a soft target, that is, a man who wished to keep his sexual preferences and activities confidential,” she said.
Hannan sentenced Timothy Ruge to 220 hours of unpaid community work and a 24-month community corrections order, saying that prison time could be a risk for the former homeless ice user.
“You were very close to finding yourself in jail today,” she told him. “You breach this order and it’s like holding your hand up and saying ‘send me to jail’.”
