A young homosexual artist who was knocked out by five attackers in what police believe to be a “hate crime” was afraid the homophobes “intended to murder” him.
Aaron, 33, claims that on June 26 at approximately 4 a.m. outside the Universal nightclub on Sydney’s Oxford Street, he was attacked, kicked, and trampled upon while attempting to avoid a confrontation with the gang of unidentified guys.
He was taken to the hospital in a hurry, where he subsequently awoke bleeding, with a broken nose, his eyes swollen shut, and no memory of how he got there.
The five men are sought for the terrible assault, and the NSW Police have made a significant public appeal to find them. They have released a number of pictures and CCTV video of the suspects.
Aaron revealed the horrifying experience to Nine News on Thursday, saying that before the thugs followed him down the street, a guy approached him and hurled homophobic insults at him.
They actually intended to murder me, he stated. “They kicked me on the ground when I was unconscious, stomped on my head, and were striking me in the face.”
The person who spoke to me referred to me as a f****t. He wanted to fight, and I knew it. They pursued me as I attempted to cross the street, and the rest is a blur in my memory.
“I awoke in the hospital, bloody.” I screamed in terror, unsure of my whereabouts.
The community has shown overwhelming support for the 33-year-old, and Aaron is requesting that the thugs face the full force of the law.
Violence is never the solution. These individuals must understand that their actions have repercussions, he said.
“No one should have to go through this,” she said, “but I’m thankful to be alive.”
Aaron, who shared gruesome pictures of the intensity of the beating from his hospital bed, expressed gratitude for his survival.
His medical expenses have now exceeded $10,000. He has already had surgery on his nose and will need more procedures on his gums and teeth.
New video from NSW Police shows a group of individuals sought in connection with the alleged hate crime near the nightclub.
One of the gang, who was seen leaving the nightclub naked and with a bum bag across his chest, seemed to be of a variety of ethnic backgrounds.
Police are requesting anybody with knowledge on the names of the gang or anyone was in the Universal nightclub when it was attacked to get in touch with them.
Aaron revealed earlier this week on his social media pages that he had suffered a severe concussion as a result of inflammation in his brain and ears.
In his statement, he said, “I press my hand to my heart when I say I wouldn’t want this on anybody to go through, I’ve wanted to hide and this is so large for me to share, it’s taken a lot of energy, building up the fortitude to publish and hope the public, can bring justice in a healthy/moral way.”
As a consequence of being the victim of a hate crime, “I” have a $10,000 dental bill, ongoing physio/chiro, counselling, medical, and dentist visits.
Help me and others put an end to this needless violence by sharing and reposting this message, please!
Since then, Aaron has received an outpouring of support from fans as friends launch an online fundraising campaign for the guy they called “a wonderful soul.”
Alejandro Bareno stated, “I thought I’d attempt to seek some justice and aid someone I care about.”
“I set up this website to assist Aaron in receiving the justice he deserves after the abhorrent assault. Let’s demonstrate to those individuals that in times like these, we all join together because it is incredible and so awful that these things still occur.
He suffered from a fractured nose, battered eyes, and misaligned jaw and teeth.
“No one should ever become a victim of a hate crime committed against the happy and peaceful LGTBQIA+ community. In order to halt these terrible acts of violence against our community, you assist me in sharing and reposting this website.
As the perpetrator of a bright American student who was thrown down a cliff 30 years ago makes a shocking last-minute confession, dark mysteries behind the homosexual hate murders of 23 men at Sydney’s beaches may come to light.
A 50-year-old man’s shocking last-minute admission in court this week that he killed a US math student in 1988 has given police new hope for solving up to 23 “gay hate” murders. The guy said he was “guilty, guilty, guilty” throughout his confession.
At a pre-trial hearing, Scott Phillip White admitted guilt in a split-second decision, scaring his attorneys, who unsuccessfully sought to get the plea changed.
He is now awaiting punishment for shoving 27-year-old Scott Johnson, a bright PhD graduate, down a cliff at Manly’s North Head. Scott Johnson’s corpse was discovered on the rocks below on December 10, 1988.
Justice Helen Wilson found White guilty after White apologised to his attorney Belinda Rigg, stating, “I appreciate your efforts, but I can’t take it.”
Despite a botched police investigation that determined Scott Johnson’s death was a suicide, his California-based brother Steve never accepted that conclusion and pursued the matter for three decades. Scott Johnson had left his clothing neatly folded at the top of Blue Fish Point.
Steve Johnson revealed that Blue Fish Point was referred to as a beat within Sydney’s LGBT community, much like previous murder scenes during the 1970s and 1980s.
Assuming that Scott had “taken off his clothes, lain down, and someone had likely gone up to Scott while he was there and suggested sex or whatever,” Her said.
After a third inquest into Scott’s death concluded that he was likely killed and led detectives to arrest White, it was Mr. Johnson’s judgement that in part motivated police to reexamine Scott’s death.
Up to 88 homosexual males in Sydney’s east and metro districts are known to have vanished under mysterious circumstances or were murdered between the early 1970s and the end of the 1980s.
Men were discovered dead in houses, parks, and on the rocks at the base of Sydney clifftops.
When asked whether the arrest of White in 2020 offered him optimism for making further arrests in comparable unresolved crimes, NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Tony Crandell said, “My word it does.”
There are still unsolved beats that we connect to homosexual hate crimes, he added, adding that there are additional incidents in the area.
“I’m really optimistic that situations like these will cause a stir in the neighbourhood and we may gather additional information. This is what we need in order to prosecute these cases.
They are not closed or frozen, and we will continue to work on them. Anyone out there who committed such offences should be watching themselves.
The examples of Ross Warren and John Russell immediately spring to mind.
It is alleged that in 1989, WIN TV journalist Ross Warren and Bondi bartender John Allan Russell were hurled from the Bondi-Tamarama cliffs in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs.
One of the groups active in the region is said to have brutally murdered 25-year-old Ross Warren.
With up to 30 members between the ages of 15 and 18, one gang known as The Bondi Boys, also known as The Part Time Killers (PTK), hung out at night on the Bondi-Tamarama walk close to Marks Park.
The Tamarama Gang, which had three members who were between the ages of 16 and 17, met at night on the Bondi-Tamarama walk, was the other group.
On Sunday, July 22, 1989, at about 2.15 am, Ross Warren was seen driving his Nissan Pulsar in the direction of Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
At WIN Television, the dashing newsreader was recognised as a talent with a bright future.
He didn’t show off his sexuality and was probably on his way to what he believed would be a private affair, but which would turn out to be a disastrous one.
Midway through 1989, Mr. Warren was staying at a friend’s home in Sydney; he did not return; nor did he appear at the Wollongong studios of WIN Television to appear on television.
Although his corpse was never discovered, his keys were discovered on the rocks under Marks Park.
John Allan Russell, 31, was found dead on November 23, 1989, near the foot of the South Bondi cliff, just below Marks Park.
Rusted iron water pipes that may have been used as bars to beat him with were discovered close to the corpse, supporting the theory that he was pushed from the cliff.
Similar activities were taking place at the harbour’s flanking cliffs and in the city parks, which continued to be used as secret meeting places even after homosexuality was made legal in New South Wales in 1984.
Giles Mattaini, a 27-year-old resident of France, was residing in Bondi in 1985.
He was last saw by a neighbour strolling along the Tamarama beach walking route on September 15 of that year; he wasn’t reported missing until 2002.
Raymond Keam, a martial arts specialist, was beaten to death in January 1987 in Alison Park in Randwick, while William Allen was beaten to death in December 1988 at Alexandria Park in Alexandria.
In the wee hours of August 22, 1992, Cyril Olsen, 64, was struck near Rushcutters Bay before being forced into the ocean and drowning.
An organised gang of up to 15 individuals, all between the ages of 15 and 18, was operating in Alexandria’s inner-western suburb.
The Alexandria Gang or Alexandria Eight congregated in their neighbourhood park late at night, as was the case in 1990 when a man named Richard Johnson was persuaded to use the restroom there by a guy posing as someone looking to meet up for a tryst over the phone.
Johnson was pushed to the ground by the gang of adolescent males as he approached the bathroom block after parking his vehicle and looking for his mysterious hookup.
The youngsters alternated between hitting and kicking him till he passed away where he lay.
On December 23, 1993, after partying with friends during a night out in Darlinghurst and Surry Hills, Crispin Dye, the former manager of AC/DC, was beaten to death.
Three teenage males were reportedly seen by witnesses standing over Mr. Dye’s lifeless corpse after a savage beating before they took off with his wallet.
One of the killings, that of Thai student Kritchikorn Rattanajaturathaporn, was solved, while the most of them were left unsolved.
Mr. Rattanajaturathaporn’s bloody, beaten corpse was discovered among the rocks at the base of the Marks Parks sea bluff in South Bondi in July 1990.
Later, it was discovered by police that two young people had seen him and his buddy, Jeffrey Sullivan, sitting on the observation wall at adjacent Mackenzie’s Point.
After threatening the two men, the teens attacked them and beat them with a claw hammer, a baton, and other objects, rendering Mr. Sullivan partially unconscious.
Mr. Rattanajurathaporn was being pursued by the adolescents up the clifftop walkway when he either fell to his death or was knocked down.
He drowned or was killed by his wounds, which included severe lacerations, bruises, skull and spinal fractures, and brain damage.
Mr. Johnson saw the murder happen firsthand, and as a result, three boys were ultimately found guilty of murder and given 14 years in jail each.
An investigation of 88 hate crimes against gay and lesbian people led to the formation of Strike Force Parabell, which in 2018 presented a report that was tabled in the NSW Parliament.
The study included startling information on the attackers, who were mostly males but sometimes also included women or young girls, and who thought secluded, seedy homosexual beats were the ideal location for their crimes.
The only reason the gangs “would travel around from beat to beat” attacked could have been to get money.
According to a former NSW Police investigator, “predatory groups would go up and attack people, seeking to acquire $10, $20, or $30 to purchase some drink and have a fantastic night out.”
Other assailants attempted to present themselves as “alpha males,” others just “hated” homosexuals, while others had experienced child molestation and found it difficult to distinguish between paedophiles and gay men.
Former NSW Police Minister David Elliott recently called the lack of inquiry into the deaths of homosexual males at the time as “offensive.” At the time, police often dismissed the deaths of gay men as suicides.
According to Mr. Elliott, “it was disrespectful because of the motivation behind the crime.”
‘It was insulting because it happened at a period when people were too willing to attempt to make excuses for or move on from hate crimes,’ the author said.
Well, we no longer practise that.
In 2020, the former NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said that the police department was now committed to redressing past injustices.
In spite of the fact that there have been competent police in New South Wales’ history who have solved complex crimes, Mr. Fuller stated, “I believe errors were made by police in every era of policing.”
“I do believe that the situation facing young homosexual males, not only in Sydney but all across the globe, was a terrible one.
In addition to being let down by the police, the community also let them down.
“Can I just make it clear to the people, especially the relatives of those victims out there, that once we get new information, we will launch an inquiry into their demise?
Many victims’ relatives are only seeking for answers; they seldom want to place blame.
“I believe it’s acceptable that we keep trying to solve those crimes in whatever way we can.”