A gang in Birmingham, England, has been convicted for luring homosexuals to a public park using the Grindr app, where they were robbed, urinated on, and in one case told they deserved to be victimised for being a “white man responsible for attacks on Muslims in New Zealand.”
Mohammed Khan, of George Road, Hay Mills, Mohammed Umar, of Denville Crescent, Bordesley Green, and Qaasim Ahmad, of Heather Road, Small Heath, all 18-years-old, were convicted of conspiracy to rob, conspiracy to burgle, and conspiracy to falsely imprison, according to a BirminghamLive report.
A West Midlands Police statement on the convictions — which neglected to mention the racial animus behind the attacks — described how the gang “arranged to meet their dates in Bordesley Green and then forced them onto wasteland — before assaulting and restraining the victims, robbing them, and humiliating them by shouting anti-gay slurs.”
The police statement did not report the even less pleasant details of the attacks which appeared in the local press, however, which described how victims were stripped, filmed naked, urinated on, and forced to walk through dog excrement, among other degrading acts.
One of the victims was kept bound and gagged and threatened with having his eye gouged with a screwdriver while gang members went to his home and ransacked it.
“Since my attack the impact of what happened has taken many forms, first was the shock of being knocked to the ground, then the terror of being bound and threatened with being stabbed,” one of the victims told the court in an impact statement.
“As the punches hit my head and face I was expecting to be stabbed at any moment, it felt like hours as I was forced to lay face down in the dirt with my hands and legs bound not knowing if I would ever see my family again,” he added.
“Every time something reminds me of the attack, it takes me to a bad place and it affects my sleep,” said another.
“I have ongoing bad dreams particular about the moment of despair I felt at one point during the attack where I thought I would die in a horrible way. It is the memory of the fear of having that screwdriver rammed in my eye, that moment where the young man was threatening to do that.
“During the past six months there have been regular moments where I am taken back to that place. It can be watching television and seeing some violent scene in a drama or hearing about attacks on the news.”
“You deliberately degraded and humiliated your victims,” remarked sentencing judge Heidi Kubic QC.
“You subjected your victims to serious physical assaults and you threatened them with various weapons, including a large hunting knife, a screwdriver and you used a metal bar to inflict injuries… The impact of the offending on each of the victims is long-lasting and serious indeed. It will remain with them for the rest of their lives.”
West Midlands Police boasted that the gang members “were sentenced to a combined total of more than 37 years in prison” — although this seems wholly misleading, as the number is arrived at by adding all of the sentences given to all three men together, and ignoring the fact that they will all be eligible for automatic release on licence partway into their individual terms.
It is highly unlikely that any will serve even ten years in custody, unless recalled to prison for breaching licence conditions after their release.
West Midlands Police
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