Man jailed for 18 months after near-fatal assault on friend who spotted him on Grindr

A 27-year-old man from San Ġwann has been jailed for 18 months for committing a vicious assault that left a young man, whom he had encountered on a popular gay dating platform, in danger of dying. 

Kurt Amato had been charged with causing the victim to suffer grievous bodily harm as well as with committing a hate crime motivated by the victim's sexual orientation.

The case was brought to the attention of the police on 11 January 2022 by doctors at Mater Dei Hospital, who reported that a patient had been admitted the night before, in a critical condition and was in danger of dying.

Initially, the victim had told officers that he had tripped over a dog’s leash while walking along Triq Ġorġ Borġ Olivier in Sliema that evening, but later confessed to having made up that story out of fear of telling his mother about his sexual orientation.

“The real version [is that] I was walking home from having a coffee with my friend. I walked down Triq Oliver Borg Street, opposite the hospital. I heard my name get called, I turned around and it was Kurt, he ran towards me and he started kicking and pushing me towards the floor.”

“After someone stopped the attack, I managed to walk myself home, I was thinking it was my arthritis pain, then I could hear like tripping inside, so I phoned my mama, asked her to take me to the hospital. When I got to the hospital they rushed me into surgery. I woke up in the surgery, [told] that I had minutes to live…I told the police that I tripped over my dog at the beginning because I was scared of what happened.” 

In his testimony, the victim said that he had knew Amato “through a colleague of a friend of a friend” and that he had been assaulted by him before while giving Amato a lift, but had not reported it. 

The man recalled that he had encountered Amato on Grindr, a dating app for the LGBTIQ+ community, and had asked him about his presence on the platform, as he had been under the impression that Amato was not gay. 

“I asked him why he was on the application because [he was] straight. And he told me he was curious … then after about five minutes he blocked me, first he told me not to tell anyone about it, then he blocked me and then about two hours later he came on to Facebook saying, "Do you want to meet and everything?" and I said no.”

Amato had assaulted the victim in Sliema while the latter had been walking home after visiting a coffee shop with a friend. The court was told that the defendant had run up to him, then kicked him repeatedly, before pushing the man to the ground and continuing to kick him until a passerby intervened and stopped him.

A doctor who had treated the victim in hospital told the court that the injuries, which included a serious laceration to his liver, were life-threatening and had to be operated on immediately.

One of the defence witnesses was a gay friend and former housemate of Amato’s, who insisted that the defendant was not homophobic.

After evaluating the evidence, Magistrate Victor Axiak found Amato guilty of grievous bodily harm, but did not convict him of committing a hate crime, due to a lack of evidence. The magistrate observed that the apparent motive behind the assault was Amato’s fear of public embarrassment were the victim to disclose Amato’s presence on Grindr, rather than any particular hostility towards the victim’s sexual orientation.

Amato was sentenced to imprisonment for 18 months, with the court taking into account the fact that Amato already had previous convictions for violent theft and violation of probation orders. A three-year restraining order was also issued to protect the victim after Amato’s release from prison.

Inspector Colin Sheldon led the prosecution, with lawyer Alfred Abela was defence counsel. Lawyer Wilfred Buttigieg assisted the victim as parte civile.