Five suspected blackmail cases, all involving men targeted on Grindr in one area, and at least four tied to one gang that is still at large. That is what a BBC investigation found, and it is why a police watchdog has told Hertfordshire Police to look again at how it handled the death of Scott Gough.
The story starts in March 2024. Gough’s partner, Cameron Tewson, was at their home in Chandler’s Cross, Hertfordshire, when six men arrived and demanded the keys to Gough’s new car. Tewson described them as “white and in their mid 20s.” They ran when he called the police and alerted a neighbour.
They left a note addressed to the “owner of a white Range Rover,” with the number plate and a phone number. “I think it’s in your best interest to give me a call,” it said.
What came next
Gough, 56 and a car dealership worker, would not talk about it when he got home. He insisted he would deal with the police himself. Tewson thinks he was hiding his use of Grindr. “I feel strongly he knew who they were, and he kept that from me,” he said.
The next day Tewson found him dead in the bedroom. A coroner later recorded asphyxiation, and the inquest into the full circumstances remains open.
Tewson said the officers’ attitude changed once he mentioned his suspicions about Grindr. “When it came up in conversations I felt like it was just a complete disregard.”
The gaps in the police file
Police documents show the gang’s phone number was already known to officers and had featured in an earlier Grindr blackmail inquiry. Officers traced the car’s registration and named a suspect, but never spoke to the men identified as possible offenders. No DNA or fingerprints were taken from the note, no rubbish left by the gang was collected, and nobody was arrested.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) found that the blackmail attempt and its possible links to Gough’s death had not been “robustly investigated,” and that later complaints were mishandled too. It upheld a complaint that police made “several errors.”
It also found two more blackmail reports with the same phone number within 10 days of Gough’s death. In both, victims arranged to meet someone on Grindr and were met by young men demanding money. The group later called themselves “paedophile hunters,” with nothing to support that, and police treated them as “individuals requiring safeguarding.”
A second family
The BBC also spoke to the family of Liam McHale, a 24-year-old fashion student from Buckinghamshire who lived about 15 miles from Gough. He was found dead nine weeks after Gough. The night before, he told friends a man he met on Grindr was blackmailing him and falsely claiming to be underage. A coroner returned an inconclusive verdict on whether he meant to end his life. The BBC could not verify whether the same gang targeted both men.
Grindr said it works to keep users safe and cooperates with UK law enforcement. It argued that identity verification can be a risk for people who are not out at work or live with unsupportive families. Hertfordshire Police said it could not discuss specifics and is committed to working well with LGBTQ+ communities.
