Gay and bisexual Sydney teenagers lured and bashed on camera in IS-inspired attacks

By Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop of ABC Investigations

Warning: This story contains video and details that some may find disturbing.

James*, 16, screams as a pack of black-clad teenagers drag him to the ground and stomp on his head while an attacker films on his phone in Sydney's Strathfield Park.

In another video, the gang forces a different 16-year-old into a toilet block and repeatedly punches him while calling him a "f***ot" and a "kaffir", or nonbeliever. Blood runs down his face, as he begs: "I'll do anything".

A third clip shows a boy in a cropped top lying silent on the grass, his hands shielding his face as he is repeatedly stomped on and called a "gay dog", while one attacker shouts "Dawlatul Islam" - Arabic for Islamic State (IS).

"I'll f***ing shoot you, you little dog," one attacker says, before the victim finally emits a single high-pitched cry, and the video cuts out.

The footage is among recordings played in Sydney courts or circulated in chat groups, and obtained by ABC Investigations from court files, victims and members of the public.

It documents a surge of violence against gay and bisexual young people in Sydney at the hands of a resurgent IS terrorist network in the two years before the Bondi attack.

A two-year ABC investigation into the reawakening of IS can reveal the attackers in the videos were linked to the same terrorist network as Naveed and Sajid Akram, the father and son responsible for the Hanukkah massacre that killed 15 people at Bondi Beach in December.

The bashings raise fresh questions about whether Australia underestimated the threat in the lead-up to the Bondi attack - and whether LGBTQIA+ Australians remain acutely exposed.

Five teenagers have so far been convicted over the bashings.

Several of them congregated around a radical Bankstown prayer hall, Al Madina Dawah Centre, which was ordered to close after the Bondi shooting.

Police evidence connected members of the group to two of Australia's most influential pro-IS figures: spiritual leader Wisam Haddad and alleged youth recruiter Wassim Fayad.

The bashings were among scores of attacks since 2023 on LGBTQIA+ people across Australia, who were lured on dating apps and bashed on camera by young people radicalised by a mix of extremist influences, from jihadism to the far right.

Figures obtained by the ABC show at least 64 people have been charged in NSW and Victoria alone since 2023 over app-based attacks on LGBTQIA+ people.

Similar attacks have been reported in the ACT, Queensland and Western Australia, but police say many more incidents go unreported.

With a Victorian parliamentary inquiry last week announced into so-called Grindr attacks, there are now calls for a national response to anti-LGBTQIA+ hate crimes, as well as urgent measures to protect events like this weekend's Sydney Mardi Gras.

"We are at risk of seeing these attacks that we've seen on videos turn deadly," said Josh Roose, an extremism researcher at Deakin University who has found LGBTQIA+ Australians are among the most likely targets of violent extremists.

"It's only a matter of time before a young man or men are killed."

The first known victim

In March 2024, 'James', 16, became the first known victim of the IS-inspired bashings whose case would end up in court.

The bisexual Wiradjuri teenager from south-west Sydney met a 17-year-old calling himself 'Johnny' on Wizz, an app which markets itself as safe place for minors to date.

Around 10:30pm on a school night, 'Johnny' picked him up from Liverpool station.

He drove James for 45 minutes, while two other teenagers hid in the car boot. Another waited at Strathfield Park.

As soon as they arrived, James was ambushed and hurled to the ground by four boys, aged 14 to 17, who yelled homophobic slurs.

Video recorded by one of the attackers, tendered to the court, shows one wearing a hoodie bearing the Shahada, an Islamic declaration of faith appropriated by Islamic State.

"I remember them kicking me in the back, in the leg and in the chest and my whole face," he told the ABC.

The attackers stole his phone, before he ran to a nearby house and was taken to hospital.

A magistrate later said he was fortunate not to have more significant injuries.

"I would say the same thing - I'm lucky to be alive," James said.

"It's really hard to trust people these days now.

"I can't go out by myself anymore and I'm afraid to go back on social media and make new friends."

Under Australian law, the ABC cannot identify the juveniles involved.

Soon after the attack, NSW Police established Strike Force Section to investigate a string of assaults and violent robberies targeting LGBTQIA+ people in the Sydney city, Auburn, Burwood and Campbelltown areas.

Several attacks were filmed and circulated in chat groups, some videos bearing IS watermarks.

Nine days later, the Joint Counter-Terrorism Team - comprising NSW Police, the AFP and ASIO - carried out sweeping raids against a dozen teenagers, including the group who attacked James.

Police alleged they were part of an Islamic State network that included the Wakeley attacker and four teenagers charged with planning a second terrorist attack against Jews.

Five of the teenagers were separately charged over four filmed bashings, including the attack against James.

Investigators also discovered links to Haddad, who had delivered violent antisemitic and homophobic lectures at Al Madina Dawah Centre, describing homosexuality as "punishable by death" under an Islamic state.

Fayad, an alleged ISIS recruiter and extreme homophobe who preached alongside him, was also raided but not charged.

The ABC last year revealed the violent convicted criminal was associating with a number of the teenagers in the alleged IS network.

Fayad had been released from a strict control order in 2023, despite police earlier identifying him as a member of an IS cell recruiting teenagers for attacks.

'We don't get sins for it cos there [sic] gay'

When police arrested the teenager who posed as 'Johnny', they found chat logs suggesting the attacks had been under way for at least 10 months.

In May 2023, he conspired in messages with a friend to lure, bash and rob gay young people, who he described as "kaffir dogs", or nonbelievers.

"We keep doing that to gay c**ts on Wiiz [sic]," he wrote.

"Wallah we gunna make a living off this ... We make them pay or we roll them."

His friend wrote: "we dont get sins for it since there [sic] gay".

The exchange coincided with a spike in IS propaganda calling for attacks on LGBTQIA+ people and events.

At the same time, young men across several countries - in the US, UK, Europe, Asia and the Middle East - were posting similar bait-and-bash videos online, driven by extremist influencers across ideological lines.

The violence did not stop with the arrests of the IS sympathisers.

One video leaked from an Australian chat group shows a bloodied, victim held in a headlock as attackers yell "Islamic State lives", demand money and bay for his killing.

"You wanna be gay?" one attacker repeats, before stomping on his face.

Those same words are heard repeatedly in another clip, in which a 20-year-old university student is kicked unconscious.

While he lays motionless, his solo attacker stomps on his head repeatedly before leaving him for dead.

The victim told the ABC he suffered permanent facial injuries in the April 2025 attack.

A 17-year-old boy pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery over the bashing, but walked free on nine months' probation, with no conviction recorded.

A police source told the ABC he was linked to the same jihadist network as the earlier attackers, with several relatives who fought with IS during the Syrian war.

NSW Police say they have not identified the victim or attackers in the first video.

'Johnny' was sentenced to at least six months' youth detention for four attacks, including the bashing of James.

He withdrew an appeal after a District Court judge indicated a longer sentence was warranted.

Three co-offenders avoided jail sentences, while a fourth remains before the courts.

'Johnny' and a fellow attacker are expected to be sentenced in Parramatta Children's Court today on additional offences of possessing extremist material.

A warning sign about Wisam Haddad's network

Dr Roose has documented scores of similar incidents in extremist forums, but said these videos were the most serious.

He said the attacks were a clear warning sign to Australian authorities about the violent intent of many in Wisam Haddad's network in the years before the Bondi massacre.

"They weren't prosecuted as violent extremist acts," he said.

"However, the videos show a clear level of radicalisation and a clear willingness to use potentially deadly violence.

"The videos demonstrate that there are young men who are prepared to potentially act in an incredibly violent manner against those they believe are subhuman and who should be attacked."

According to Dr Roose, LGBTQIA+ Australians are the most likely to be killed by violent extremists, after Australian Jews.

NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley said the state government and NSW Police worked closely with LGBTQIA+ community leaders to safeguard events including Sydney Mardi Gras.

"Police assess all public events on a case-by-case basis and deploy the resources necessary to keep people safe," she said in a statement.

Haddad and Fayad did not respond to the ABC's questions.

Haddad has previously said there was no evidence that he was an IS spiritual leader, or that he had any "personal, organisational or instructional link" with Bondi gunman Naveed Akram.

For some in Sydney's LGBTQIA+ community, the videos evoke memories of the 1980s, when gay bashings were routine and rarely prosecuted.

This time, the violence was filmed, branded and shared - and, investigators say, tied to a network that would later carry out the deadliest terrorist attack on Australian soil.

*Names have been changed.

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-ABC