‘You Wanna Get Shot?’: Cairns Court Shown Shocking Footage of Violent Grindr Attack
Image: Sources: Grindr.com, Katrin Bolovtsova on Pexels
Disturbing mobile phone footage showing three young men luring and violently attacking a man they met through the gay dating app Grindr has been played in the Cairns Magistrates Court.
The court heard the attack occurred on 22 October 2024, when the men — John-Joseph Charles Raphael Sarota-Novak-Patterson, Max Fryer, and Blake Dean Nightingall — are alleged to have created a fake Grindr profile and arranged to meet their victim outside the Smithfield library.
Police prosecutor Shaquille Chong told the court the men claimed they were searching for “paedophiles,” and told police they pretended to be 15 years old. The footage however captured them laughing at, threatening, and demanding money and bank details from the man during the assault.
Footage of violent Grindr attack reveals taunts and demands
In the footage played to the court, the men can be heard threatening the victim, demanding $3,000 or they would go to “their boys” and the police. One man is heard saying:
“You wanna get shot. You wanna get hung. You wanna get fucked up. You give me three grand otherwise I’ll tell the police and my boys, and I’ll cut your fingers off.”
“Where’s your phone, brah? We’re going to fuck you up so bad.”
The court heard 21-year-old Sarota-Novak-Patterson — who acting magistrate Raimund Heggie identified as the clear main perpetrator — put the victim in a headlock, punched him repeatedly, threw him to the ground, and dragged him along the pavement while Fryer, then 20, waved a baseball bat and struck the victim once.
Prosecutor Chong said the men also took the victim’s phone and demanded his bank details during the assault.
Defence calls behaviour an “aberration”
Sarota-Novak-Patterson pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and stealing. He was described by his lawyer as a devout Catholic and hard worker, and arrived at court carrying a Bible.
His lawyer, Scott Osborne, told the court his client had been drunk at the time and made the “very poor decision” to access Grindr.
“He was drunk at the time. He describes the quite obvious very poor decision to access Grindr as ‘impulsive’. He has a deep regret of what happened,” said Osborne.
Osborne also claimed Sarota-Novak-Patterson had not intended to commit assault, but only wanted to “remonstrate very forcefully” with the victim and was not facing charges over the extortion-style comments heard in the footage.
Magistrate condemns “disturbing” footage
Heggie described the video as “disturbing,” and said a custodial sentence was “in range” but accepted the defendant’s youth, good character, and strong employment record as factors in sentencing.
Sarota-Novak-Patterson was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment with immediate parole and ordered to pay $1,500 compensation to the victim within two months or serve an additional 50 days in custody.
The court heard Fryer and Nightingall, both 20 at the time, were sentenced earlier this year. Fryer received a suspended 10-month prison term, while Nightingall — described as largely an observer — was sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment with immediate parole for assault occasioning bodily harm in company, stealing, and related charges. Both were ordered to pay compensation to the victim.
You really have to wonder why the alleged extortion, evidenced and recorded by video, wasn’t charged as well as the assaults.. Cairns police need to be asked for their prosecutorial reasoning here.