Mr. White, 21, said in a telephone interview Thursday that while he was still processing the news of the sentencing, he did not believe that justice had been served. “It’s not what I asked for,” said Mr. White, noting that he had asked the judge for a harsher sentence. “Life is what I asked for.”
Efforts to reach Mr. Seneca’s lawyer on Thursday were unsuccessful.
The Justice Department said that Mr. Seneca acknowledged he had used Grindr to kidnap and try to murder his victim, “for the purpose of satisfying his homicidal urges, and that he had planned to continue murdering until he was caught or killed.”
The department said Mr. Seneca also said his attack on Mr. White was an attempt to “satisfy a compulsive murder-fantasy” and that he had spent months carefully designing a scheme that mirrored similar murders committed by the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, and that, like Mr. Dahmer, Mr. Seneca had planned to preserve and eat the bodies of his victims.
Mr. Seneca told authorities that he had tried to lure another gay man to his father’s house the day before the attack on Mr. White, but that Mr. Seneca had changed his mind, court records show.
“The facts of this case are truly shocking,” Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, said in a statement. Mr. Seneca’s targeting of gay men, Ms. Clarke noted, was a “disturbing reminder” of the unique dangers facing the L.G.B.T.Q. community. “The internet should be accessible and safe for all Americans,” she said.
Patrick Lenihan, a spokesman from Grindr, said that the company was continuing to work toward the realization of a “safer, better world” for the L.G.B.T.Q. community, noting that the company publishes a security guide and safety tips on its app and website, and that it encourages users to be safe when interacting with people they do not know, as well as to report illegal behavior.
“There’s a fine line we have to navigate between privacy and safety,” Mr. Lenihan said. “We are constantly reassessing and working with everyone from law enforcement groups to L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy and grass roots organizers to make sure we are staying ahead of bad actors as best we possibly can.”
Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
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