Man jailed for blackmailing Grindr dates by threatening to leak sexual photos

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A hospital worker who blackmailed men he met on Grindr by threatening to leak their sexually explicit photos has been jailed for more than two years.

Patryk Hrymak swapped naked photos with his victims before telling them he would send the images to their friends if they did not pay him money.

The 27-year-old from Norbury in south London met the men on the gay dating app before moving the conversation to online messaging and swapping naked images.

Scotland Yard said Hrymak “would give the victim the impression that he intended to meet up with them but before that, he would insist they confirm who they were by providing social media profile details.”

Once he had gained access to the victim’s phone number and social media contacts, he ”would threaten to send their naked images to their social media contacts unless they paid him.”

Most of the men blocked him and reported him to the police, but one handed over £120 to stop him disclosing the pictures.

In two of the eight cases, Hrymak sent photos to the victim’s contacts.

Hrymak was arrested at his home in Norbury Crescent on 14 November last year and pleaded guilty last month to eight counts of blackmail and two counts of disclosing photographs and films with intent to cause distress/

He was jailed for two years and four months at Croydon Crown Court on Tuesday.

Detective constable Keval Varia: “The victims in this case were contacted via a male-only dating app, however anyone using any form of online dating service, should be wary of sending intimate photographs of themselves. Think carefully about what you share with people online. I hope that the sentence handed down brings a measure of closure for the victims.”