Two gay hate attacks have left flatmates in Sydney's Eastern suburbs fearing for their safety. The men have been forced to leave their Woollahra home after intruders ransacked the property and left death threats and homophobic graffiti in two seemingly related hate attacks. After a dinner out in late December last year, the men, Jon and Jarrod, returned to their eastern suburbs home to find smashed glass and blood in the downstairs living area. An intruder had found gay DVDs in an upstairs bedroom and strewn them across a bed. A note saying “you are going to die soon, you pedophile prick” was left in the house. Police recovered the note after being alerted by neighbours and arriving at the house before Jon and Jarrod. A neighbour told Jon and Jarrod he saw two men in the house before the police arrived. “I don't believe … that we are being targeted for any other reason than the fact that they've just come in here, robbed us and found this gay porn,” Jon, who asked that his surname not be published, told Sydney Star Observer. Jon believes the intruders left the note because they saw the bedroom of his two-and-a-half-year-old son, who used to stay with his father once a week. “In some typical distortion of being gay and being a paedophile, they left us this evil note,” he said. In a second attack in late January, homophobic graffiti was scrawled on the property's front wall. Jon and Jarrod believe the intruders from December were also behind the latest attack. Since then they have moved out of their Woollahra home. “We're shocked by the fact there's even this sort of gay hate crime going on any more,” Jon said. Senior Constable Craig Partridge from Rose Bay Police told the Star fingerprint and forensic evidence from the incidents was being analysed. Police did not have any suspects and could not confirm that the two incidents involved the same perpetrators. Ref: Sydney Star Observer (m)
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Monday, 12th February 2007 - 12:00pm