Liam Young – Devon

A Devon man who hooked up with a partner on Grindr turned out to be a spiteful and relentless menace who subjected multiple victims to sickening abuse, threats and violence.

Liam Young, 25, bombarded people with hundreds of messages, promising to kill and rape them, a court heard.

He left his victims petrified of what he might do. One said he was ‘evil’.

When one victim said he would go to the police, Young offered to pay him £1,000 to stay silent.

Young, who lived in Plymouth and Paignton, has now been jailed for five years at Exeter Crown Court.

He pleaded guilty to nine offences of harassment, one of sending malicious communications, one of perverting the course of justice, two sexual assaults, criminal damage and assault causing actual bodily harm.

The offences happened at multiple locations in Torbay and Plymouth over a period of more than a year.

The assault took place after he went to a hotel room with a man and then beat him up in the corridor outside.

Judge Stephen Climie said: “There can be no justification for the distress you caused to each victim over a significant period of time. It was the result of very, very persistent behaviour.”

One man said he met Young on Grindr. To begin with he appeared friendly but turned soon nasty, calling him on a private number 20 times a day, often masturbating on the call.

Young was captured on CCTV punching a man in the corridor of the Copthorne Hotel in Plymouth in January 2023.

The pair had argued in the room and Young landed 10 or 11 blows when he tried to leave. He also bit him on the shoulder.

Between October 2023 and May 2025 Young pestered the owner of a tattoo business, sending him multiple threatening messages.

Another man said he was pestered 30 or 40 times a day by Young. When he called police Young threatened to ‘burn him’ and get a gang to inflict punishment.

One man was contacted by Young after putting an item for sale on Gumtree. Young would send 100 messages a day.

One woman was driving her child when Young called and said he would slit her throat, stab and rape her.

He sent another woman messages containing graphic threats of violence.

But when she threatened to go to police he begged her not to.

She said in a statement it was no wonder he was lonely. The messages were scary and disgusting and she never wanted to hear from him again.

Others victims said their lives had been made a misery by the constant messages and threats.

The sexual assaults, though distressing for the victims, were relatively minor, said the judge, and involved Young kissing a man and grabbing the bottom of another.

Young was given a restraining order not to contact his victims. It will last for life.

He was also banned from visiting the locations of his crimes.