A former United States marine who brutally choked a trans woman to death will remain in prison in the Philippines after a last-minute U-turn. Joseph Scott Pemberton was convicted of killing Jennifer Laude in 2015, and was handed a sentence of between six and 12 years in prison, which was later reduced to 10. There
Crime
Joey and Anisha Van Niekerk were raped and killed in 2017 (Facebook/joey van niekerk) Four people have been found guilty of raping and murdering a lesbian couple in a horrific and brutal attack. Joey van Niekerk, 32, and Anisha van Niekerk, 30, from Mooinooi, South Africa, had been married for three years when they were
Officers were called to Stamford Hill in Hackney following reports of a homophobic assault (Envato Elements) Police have appealed for witnesses to a “vicious” homophobic attack on a man in his 20s in north-east London. Officers were called to Stamford Hill in Hackney at 1am on July 26 after receiving reports of a homophobic assault
A father in a southern England town assailed his own 15-year-old son – humiliating him and whipping him with a television cable – all because he joined Grindr. Courts in Plymouth heard how the father launched into a brutal display of dominance against his own child as he lashing he son 20 times while calling
A gay Catholic official has been accused of fraudulently using a coronavirus relief scheme to buy a yacht, a townhouse and a luxury sports car. Kenneth Gaughan, 41, fraudulently received more than $2.1 million in payment protection program (PPP) loans and economic injury disaster loans (EIDL), the United States Department of Justice has alleged. He
Vanessa Solórzano. (Twitter) Vanessa Solórzano, a 20-year-old trans sex worker, was stabbed to death by a taxi driver in northwest Argentina Tuesday morning (August 11) all because he didn’t want to pay. Close friends described Solórzano as a fiercely loyal person who dreamed of becoming a makeup artist. She had began sex work to help
A woman was convicted for hurling transphobic abuse on Southend seafront (John Keeble/Getty) A 23-year-old woman has admitted in court to spewing “disgusting” transphobic abuse at another woman as she walked along an English seafront. Annabel Forbes was accused of hurling anti-trans insults at a woman on the Eastern Esplanade in Southend, Essex, at around
Police officers remove LGBT+ activists from blocking the road to a police vehicle transporting detained queer-rights activist Margo in Warsaw, Poland. (JANEK SKARZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images) A blanket of blue-uniformed police officers swept over the LGBT+ protesters, many crouched on the floor, in Warsaw, Poland, Friday (August 7) as hundreds packed the streets to demonstrate
A giant trans flag outside the Supreme Court as a community response to the landmark Supreme Court hearings that could legalise workplace discrimination, primarily against LGBTQ+ people. (Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images) Fears of a growing “epidemic” of violence against the trans community were seemingly cemented this week as the number of trans people in the
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) legend Marty Jannetty. (WWE) World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) legend Marty Jannetty left the wrestling community stunned Wednesday (August 4) after appearing to confess to murdering a gay man when he was 13. In a startling and since-deleted Facebook post, Jannetty, who was one half of the Rockers duo with Shawn Michaels
Authorities in Northern Ireland arrested a 26-year-old man in connection to a suspected homophobic attack which saw two men brutally battered with a tyre iron in their home. The Police Service of Northern Ireland, according to gcn, said that on Tuesday morning (August 4) two individuals broke into the property in Lurgan, in County Amragh,
Aja Raquell Rhone-Spears. (Facebook/GoFundMe) A trans woman was slain in Portland, US, last Tuesday night (July 31) just moments after she attended a vigil for a murdered Black man. Aja Raquell Rhone-Spears, 32, was stabbed at a vigil for homicide victim Tyrell Penney according to a Portland Police Department statement. The vigil, which was held
Michelle Davis, mother of Ukea Davis (Michel du Cille/The Washington Post via Getty) Police in Washington DC have finally admitted that the killings of two Black trans teenagers almost 20 years ago were “clearly a hate crime”. Ukea Davis, 18, and Stephanie Thomas, 19, were found dead in a car in 2002. Both had been
Webster resident Darrin Pesall posted the anti-gay rant on Facebook live. (Keloland) A homophobe in South Dakota who went on a profanity-heavy anti-gay rant while burning an LGBT+ Pride flag did not commit a hate crime. Troy Kriech, a resident of the South Dakota small town Webster, decided to put up an LGBT+ Pride flag
A poster of Kendrick Castro at the STEM School Highlands Ranch, one year after the shooting. (Hyoung Chang/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty) A trans teenager has been sentenced to life in prison after taking part in a school shooting in Denver, Colorado, that saw one student killed and eight injured. According to Reuters, Alec
Guardian columnist, Owen Jones speaks at an anti Boris Johnson election rally. (Andres Pantoja/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) One of the three men who violently attacked Guardian columnist Owen Jones outside a north London, England, pub in 2019 was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison on Friday (July 24). James Healy, a
Startling footage showed Dustin Gold hurl racist slurs in New York City. (Screen captures via Twitter) A white gay porn star who launched a vile, racist rant at a sanitation worker has been dropped by his studio following bubbling backlash, it was announced on Twitter Tuesday (July 21). Justin O’Brian, whose on-screen name is Dustin
A person draped in a transgender flag. (Drew Angerer/Getty) Trans people in England and Wales are twice as likely to experience crime as cisgender people, according to the first official data on trans crime victims. Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that more than a quarter (28 percent) of trans people had
A man produced a knife and hurled homophobic slurs during a robbery in New York City – but he was subsequently wrestled to the ground by the gay couple he attacked. Ricky Bellevue and Trevel Parrish approached gay couple Kelson Akomolafe and Edward Hoard and started shouting homophobic abuse at them last Tuesday (July 7),
He found his victims on Grindr. He drugged, raped and killed them. He disposed of their bodies all within walking distance of his east London, England, apartment. All were found in identical positions. Slumped against a wall. Their mobile phones missing. Three in a churchyard. One found in a communal area of the killer’s own
Terrorist Mohiussunnath Chowdhury plotted to kill ‘thousands of homos’ (Screenshot: Independent) A jihadi terrorist who plotted a violent attack on Pride in London had already made extensive plans to decorate his palace in heaven, a court heard. Mohiussunnath Chowdhury pinned to-do lists for the afterlife to his bedroom door while planning an attack on “thousands of homos” at
Transgender inmate C. Jay Smith (Image: Medina Orthwein LLP) A transgender inmate who spoke out against repeated sexual abuse from prison guards and made #MeToo complaints could face another ten years behind bars after being “set up”, her lawyers say. C Jay Smith, 59, filed a federal lawsuit last Monday alleging that staff members at
Another Black trans woman has been killed in a brutal shooting, making her at least the 21st trans person murdered so far this year in the United States. Bree Black was found dead at her home on Friday night (July 3) after a fatal shooting. Police in Florida were called to the 200 block of
Eyewitnesses say a the centre was attacked by a man with a golf club (Facebook/Oakland LGBTQ Community Centre) Police have launched an investigation after a vandal attacked a local LGBT+ community centre on Pride weekend, leaving staff and volunteers stunned. At around 10.05am on Saturday (June 27), bystanders watched in horror as a man with
A gay man who was beaten to within an inch of his life in a 1980s hate crime has claimed that a police report from the time said he “deserved” to be attacked. Martin Parker told The Australian that he was beaten so badly by a man who pretended to be gay outside a public
Layleen Xtravaganza Cubilette-Polanco’s death spared outcry for typifying the failures of the criminal justice system for trans women of colour. (Facebook/Polanco family attorney) Officers swung open the iron doors of the cell of Layleen Xtravaganza Cubilette-Polanco and called her name. They believed the Latinx trans woman was simply asleep while in solitary confinement. She was
A trans man described by British authorities as “out of control” has been locked up in a women’s prison for 21 months. Jay Lee Layton, 25, entered his ex-partner’s house in Spennymoor, County Durham, at 8pm on April 6 and threatened to stab her, breaching a civil order in the process. His partner refused to
Peter Elie. (Screen capture via YouTube) A 27-year-old has been arrested by Toronto, Canada, police in connection with the brutal murder of a beloved DJ, found dead in the laundry room of his apartment block. Peter Elie, 52, was found murdered early Thursday morning (May 14) after emergency services responded to a small fire in
A well-known actor has been arrested in Turkmenistan for the simple crime of being gay, local media reports claim. The man, who has not been named, was reportedly arrested last month along with his partner and a dozen other men on suspicion of homosexual activity. Gay sex is illegal in the central Asian country and
A gay couple have opened up about their horrific experience of being spat on during a homophobic incident in Amsterdam while the world is in coronavirus lockdown. The couple, called Daniel and Fabio, were walking to a supermarket on Molukkenstraat in Amsterdam yesterday (April 12) when the incident occurred. They were approached by a group