Four men are accused of using the gay dating app “Grindr” to meet up with users before allegedly assaulting and robbing them.
The four men, aged between 18 and 21, were indicted on Wednesday on “hate crime and conspiracy charges.” It was also noted that the four men carried firearms and used stolen property, including vehicles.
“According to the indictment, the men used social media dating platform Grindr to pass themselves off as gay men, arranging to meet at the victims’ homes in January and February,” reported Dallas News. “Upon entering, the defendants assaulted the victims, restrained them with tape and made derogatory statements about their sexual orientation, the indictment states.”
Dallas News notes “the hate crimes carry a maximum penalty of life in prison,” adding, “The case is being investigated by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as well as police departments in Plano and Frisco.”
In December, a fifty-year-old man was jailed after he used Grindr to meet up with, murder, and cannibalize British police officer Gordon Semple.
DNA found on cooking equipment at Brizzi’s residence indicated that the killer, Stefano Brizzi, cooked parts of Semple’s body, cannibalizing him with a pair of chopsticks before attempting to dissolve the evidence with acid.
Last year, Metro reported that crimes related to dating apps such as Grindr and Tinder had risen by 700% in the U.K. in just two years.
“The most common crimes reported were violent or sexual in nature,” Metro reported in January 2016. “There were 253 allegations of violence and 152 reports of sex offences.”
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.