Hundreds of Dollars Raised For Convicted “Vigilante” Gay-Basher

Hundreds of dollars have been raised to support the legal costs of a man convicted of luring and attacking a gay man through the dating app Grindr in October last year.

On Monday, Blake Nightingall pleaded guilty in Cairns Magistrates Court to assault occasioning bodily harm in company and stealing in an attack on October 22.

The 20-year-old created a fake Grindr profile using photos of himself as a 15-year-old and talked with his victim online, before organising a meet-up at a library. He claimed the man had sent sexually explicit photos during the exchange.

Nightingall told arresting police that he had wanted to “teach the man a lesson” for messaging with what was, to the best of his knowledge, an underage person.

“There’s another side to it,” he said. “It’s not like the other fella is fully innocent – the messages and shit – that gay dating app Grindr, there’s fellas on there all keen to meet up with 14-year-old boys, it just happened, it was a silly idea.”

When police asked Nightingall why he didn’t go to the authorities if he had concerns for children’s welfare, the 20-year-old said “it made more sense to get funny story out of it”.

Coverage shared to the Courier Mail Facebook page has attracted more than 1,000 comments, many supporting Nightingall’s actions.

“Just the kind of go getters [sic] we need,” one comment read, while others suggested he receive the title of Australian of the Year.

Nightingall himself also appears to be interacting with some comments, “liking” them, and even writing replies to thank users for their support.

On Monday, a fundraiser on GoFundMe titled “Buy Blake A Beer” raised $660 before it was taken down, with all donors receiving refunds.

“The fundraiser in question was removed as it does not meet the GoFundMe terms of service,” a spokesperson for the platform told the Courier Mail.

Community “standing together” regardless

However, supporters are still managing to get funds to Nightingall.

A Facebook page claiming to be an independent Australian news page, has shared a donation link through payment processing platform Square.

“Funds will be held in trust and passed on through to blake directly through verified channels,” the post read.

“It’s a way for the community to stand together – not just for blake, but for anyone who feels their voice has been pushed aside.”

A screenshot shared on Wednesday afternoon shows $260 raised from eight donations, which the page claims to have transferred to Nightingall.

“I’m in constant contact with Blake so he knows I am working actively for his well being,” the page administrator said.

At the time of publication, the donation link is still active.

Nightingall has been sentenced to 10 months imprisonment with an immediate parole release date. One of the other perpetrators of the attack, Max Fryer, was earlier sentenced to 10 months imprisonment with immediate parole, while the third alleged offender has not yet faced court.

“The circumstances were appalling, … you saw yourself with the other offenders as judge, jury and executioner,” the presiding magistrate said during Nightingall’s sentencing.

“You were acting like a vigilante law enforcer when you embarked on this exercise of trying to lure someone in… we have an unsubstantiated story being proffered with no support as to the matters he said happened.”

Other men having been targeted in similar attacks through Grindr across Sydney, Canberra, Victoria, and Western Australia in recent years. In May, Victorian police said they had arrested 35 people, mostly teenage boys, for similar offences in an eight month period.