A Jamaican teenager is in critical condition after he was beaten, robbed and set on fire when he went to meet up with a man he got to know through a gay dating site. The victim’s attackers also severed a part of his penis, authorities said, according to The Gleaner.
Police said they’re currently after the man the victim had supposedly gone to meet as well as two other suspects. The 18-year-old victim told investigators he went to the Jamaican neighborhood of Flankers on October 11 after a man he met on a gay dating site asked him to come to a spot in the area.
When he got to the address, the teen said he was confronted by three men who abducted him. The victim said the men forcefully took his bank card, cell phone and other valuables. He was subsequently beaten until he disclosed his banking details.
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Authorities said the men then went to an ATM and attempted to withdraw money with the victim’s card. They were, however, unsuccessful. “So they returned to where they were holding their victim, and on this occasion, he was forced to transfer money into an account that they gave him,” a police officer told the news outlet.
The officer said the men then went ahead to soak the victim with alcohol they had been consuming before severing a part of his penis and setting him on fire. They left the scene afterwards.
“He is a very lucky young man because although they left him in a critical condition, he managed to make his way to a security checkpoint in the community where they assisted him to the hospital, where he was admitted in critical condition,” the officer said.
The officer also said this isn’t the first time an incident of this sort has happened. “There was a similar incident in 2020, where the now-deceased, 43-year-old Allie Jackson, who worked as a warehouse manager, went on a similar gay dating site and hooked up with an alleged single gay companion, who lured him to the Retirement community,” the officer recalled.
“Jackson, unlike this young man, was not so lucky, because on January 29, 2020, he left to meet his supposedly gay date during his lunch break, but he never returned to work as he went missing,” the officer added.
“One week after he was reported missing, the police got some leads and discovered Jackson’s X-Trail motor vehicle, which was set on fire and abandoned in Retirement. This led to one suspect being taken into custody.”
Authorities later found Jackson’s decomposed body in a shallow grave around the said area.
