British police have been charged after they failed in blackmail cases against gay men through the Grindr application

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A BBC report revealed that at least four victims reported being blackmailed by a gang operating in the same area through the dating app Grindr, which is very popular among gays. The IOPC decided that the company needed to assess whether potential “homophobic assumptions” had influenced the conduct of the cases.

The mistakes continued, as became clear from the blackmail attempt against Scott Gove. On the night of the murder, his accomplice, Cameron Towson, was at home when six men showed up demanding the keys to Gough’s new car. Towson described the suspects as “white and in their early twenties.” They fled after he called the police, but left a message addressed to “the owner of the white Range Rover,” containing the license plate and phone number. The message was direct: “I think it is in your best interest to contact me.”

Upon his return home, Gove avoided explaining what happened and said he would deal with the matter with the police. Towson suspected his partner was hiding his Grindr use.

He told the BBC: “I feel strongly that he knew who they were and that he hid it from me.”

The next day, Towson found a will written in Gough’s handwriting. While talking to the police, he discovered that his partner was already dead.

The death was recorded as suffocation, and the investigation ended without a result. In the midst of shock, Tosun said: “It’s all a blur.” He reports that when he mentioned his doubts about using Grindr, he noticed an immediate change in customers’ attitude:

– When this came up in conversations, I felt complete indifference.

Subsequent documents reinforced the impression of neglect. The phone number left in the note was already known to police due to a previous extortion case on Grindr, and the license plate of the car used by the gang was traced. However, no one was questioned. Physical evidence such as DNA, fingerprints and objects disposed of at the scene were not collected. No arrests occurred.

Conclusions of the supervisory body

The IPO stated that the blackmail attempt and possible link to Gove’s death had not been “thoroughly investigated”, and highlighted “a number of errors” made after his death. The agency also stated that the police “did not fully investigate the sudden death.”

Within ten days of the death, the force received two more reports relating to the same phone number. Victims have reported encounter after encounter on Grindr. The criminal group even presented itself as “child sex hunters,” without any evidence to support this claim. However, officers treated the suspects as “individuals in need of protection,” not as perpetrators of crimes.

Another case that has drawn intense criticism is that of Liam McHale, 24. He also died after reporting blackmail on Grindr. The night before his death, he told friends that the man he met on the app was blackmailing him by pretending to be a minor. McHale called the police, but officers told him to wait until the next day, claiming he had consumed alcohol.

His mother, Julie Rice, spoke to her son that night but never spoke to him again. Then he received news of the death.

– He was my safe haven, and suddenly he was gone – he said.

The report indicated cases of suffocation and poisoning due to the use of multiple drugs. The coroner was unable to determine whether there was any intention to commit suicide. It took the police more than 18 months to access the young man’s electronic devices. No arrests have been made, although the company claims it is investigating the blackmail case, and the IOPC has decided that it is not necessary to open a misconduct investigation.

LGBTQIAPN+ organizations claim that police assistance to victims of this type of crime varies widely between regions and that it is difficult to measure the true extent of abuse committed through dating apps. It’s just a “lottery,” says Bridget Simmonds, director of services at community abuse charity Gallup.

– We know that there are good police officers, but it is really a lottery and it depends on who you deal with and where you are in the country – he explains.

Digital crime experts confirm that investigations related to extortion and fraud on these platforms are complex. Natalie Sherborne, head of white collar crime defense and investigations at law firm Withers, claims dating apps are failing to respond to crimes committed across platforms.

— Love fraud, harassment, or blackmail are not easy crimes to solve. There is a digital fingerprint, but it is not always easy to decipher. It can be very difficult to analyze the data to try to determine who is behind it, Sherburne says.