On Tuesday, a pharmacist in the English town of Middlesborough was convicted of murdering his wife. The reason? He was a regular on Grindr where he met quite a number of men for sex. Secretly he was in love with one, his “soulmate” a doctor who had emigrated to Sydney. So he decided to strangle his wife with a supermarket plastic bag (when will these finally be banned??) after injecting her with insulin. He then planned to emigrate to Australia with the couple’s daughter. But only after collecting on a £2 million life insurance payout.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tees-46445580
Early in 2017 Grindr again hit the headlines after one of the world’s most famed opera singers used the app to improperly solicit sex. 52-year old David Daniels is a countertenor, gay and married to his partner. It is a measure of Daniel’s stature in the music world that he and his partner were married in 2014 by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Daniels is also on the faculty of the University of Michigan. The UM’s own policy states that sexual contact between faculty and students is “a basic violation of professional ethics and responsibility when the faculty member has any professional responsibility for the student’s academic performance or professional future.”
Daniels was a regular on Grindr. At his home in March that year Daniels met Andrew Lipian, an emerging countertenor and then a master’s degree student from the singing faculty, allegedly to discuss his career. The student was raped. He initially claimed he was in fear of destroying his career and did not report the incident. He has now filed suit against Daniels. The case became public in October this year.
Two months before this case became public, a recent graduate from Rice University, Samuel Schultz, accused Daniels and his husband-to-be of drugging him and raping him at a party after a performance at the Houston Grand Opera back in 2010. He was 19 at the time. In a post on his website where he first spoke about his experience, Schultz said that he now has the strength to own his story and “to take back the power” it has had over him to try to bring an end to rape.
Now another UM 19-year old student, Samuel Kidd, claims that Daniels solicited sex with him using Grindr. The student reported this to the University authorities and the matter has been referred to the police. Attempted solicitation is a misdemeanour in the state. The Michigan Daily after reviewing posts suggests this was the conversation between the two -“I have been terrified to talk about this publicly because, as many know, people in positions of power… have not been held accountable in the past.
“There was a legitimate danger of destroying my career by reporting someone else’s assault against me. Because of this, I have lived with the fear of exclusion and being silenced which means that my story has not been told.
“I did not know that the word ‘rape’ applied to what happened to me until I lethargically went to tell a friend, and told her through tears and emptiness, what happened to me.
The Michigan Daily link below has details of other encounters. As the Courts are working on their cases against Daniels and his husband, opera companies are understandably distancing themselves from him by cancelling his engagements.He was messaged on Grindr . . . by someone with the username #GoBlue on March 26, 2018. #GoBlue offered him money to come over to his house and engage in sexual activity. After some initial conversation, #GoBlue let him know he was a faculty member at the University about to get tenure in May, and said because of this, they would have to be discreet.
The student told #GoBlue he thought he was messing around with him, and so #GoBlue revealed he was David Daniels. To confirm this, the student asked him to send a picture of himself touching his nose in real time.
The student provided The Daily with some of the text of this Grindr conversation, as well as the picture of Daniels touching his nose.
Daniels: Looking to make a hot dad/son fantasy to happen!$$$$$$ Does that interest you?
Student: Face? depends if I’m into you lol
Daniels: You come to my west side hotel , sit back to some porn, let daddy suck you off! You leave each time with $200 bucks. Very discreet here. U ofM affiliated so need to private (sic) and discreet about this.
https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/08/23/d ... ultz-rape/
https://www.michigandaily.com/section/c ... mous-voice