International students from countries where homosexuality is illegal are being lured into meetings via gay dating apps before being assaulted and extorted with threats of being outed, a Victorian inquiry into hate crimes has heard.
Police Data and Underreporting
Since June 2024, police identified 95 attacks targeting gay and bisexual men across Victoria, resulting in 42 arrests, Thorne Harbour Health’s chief executive, Chad Hughes, told a hate crimes inquiry on Wednesday. But Hughes, whose organisation runs an LGBTIQ+ health service, said he believed the “true number” was far higher, as many victims were reluctant to come forward due to mistrust of police.
Extortion Tactics and Fear of Being Outed
According to Switchboard Victoria’s chief executive, Jenna Tuke, who appeared alongside Hughes at the hearing, some were also scared of their sexuality being shared with family members overseas – and were extorted as a result. “We’ve heard a lot of stories of people who’ve been … contacted after the offence and asked to deposit tens of thousands of dollars in an account – ‘otherwise, this video will be shared with everyone in your contacts,’” Tuke told the hearing. “We’ve certainly seen a pattern of overseas students being targeted in countries where … homosexuality is illegal. [The] family implications for those people are absolutely massive.”
Tuke said one caller to her support service said: “I’ve got until 10pm, and if I don’t give them this money, they’ve said they’re going to release this to everyone in my contacts, including family overseas.” “We’re hearing those types of stories quite frequently,” she told the hearing. “It does appear that they may be targeting people who they think are not ‘out’, and for whom the kind of consequences of being outed as gay or queer will be greater.”
Footage Shared in the ‘Manosphere’
At just one recent community forum convened by Thorne Harbour, Hughes said 12 men disclosed being attacked after arranging meetings through dating apps. Only two reported them to police, “and one of them regretted that”. “The attacks are deliberate and humiliating. The victims are forced to recite slurs on camera and footage is shared online to give the perpetrators status with their target audiences: others in the manosphere,” Hughes told the inquiry. “Some offenders are as young as 13. These victims were not chosen at random. They were specifically targeted because they were perceived to be gay or bisexual. These are hate crimes.”
Patterns and Geographic Clusters
While each case was different, Tuke said there were recurring patterns. Victims were typically instructed to meet in a public place before being subjected to physical violence, filmed, and in many cases, extorted. Tuke also told the inquiry that most cases of app-based violence were occurring in Melbourne’s outer northern and south-eastern suburbs, although there had also been a “cluster” in Fitzroy.
In the past year, Guardian Australia has reported on attacks targeting men through dating apps across the country, with Victoria police confirming that anti-LGBTQ+ influencers had been promoting “methods of attack” online. The role of “far-right manosphere influencers” forms part of the inquiry’s terms of reference.
Global Context and Offender Demographics
Heather Corkhill, legal director at Equality Australia, told the inquiry that similar attacks had been reported across the globe, including in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. “I’ve even spoken to someone in Lebanon who described exactly the same type of attack occurring there,” she said. Corkhill told the inquiry that dating apps had allowed offenders to identify and reach potential victims with unprecedented ease. “While there have always been hate-motivated crimes against our communities, the level of access and the ability to reach victims is at a different level now,” she said. The offenders were “almost always” young men aged between 12 and 24, Corkhill said.
Equality Australia pointed to data from New South Wales, where there is a dedicated hate crime unit. Police there recorded 197 incidents of LGBTQA+ hate-related violence between January 2023 and October 2025. About 64% of those offences were committed by young people, predominantly males aged between 12 and 24.
