Prison for Frankford man who robbed man he met online

A Philadelphia man was sentenced Monday to five years in state prison for robbing a Canadian tourist he met on Grindr, a dating app for gay men.

Douglass Casey, 27, of Frankford, was to receive a negotiated sentence of two to four years in prison, but the robbery triggered two probation violations.

As a result, Common Pleas Court Judge Roxanne Covington added three years, which Casey must serve consecutively.

After the two men interacted through the app, the unnamed tourist, in town to attend an education conference last year, invited Casey to his room at the Hilton Home 2 Suites at 12th and Arch Streets.

At the time of his arrest in June, Casey was accused of threatening the man with a gun before raping and assaulting him.

Casey led the man across Center City, forcing him to withdraw cash from ATMs and purchase Visa gift cards, prosecutors said.

Casey, who had been held on $1 million bail, was charged with indecent deviant sexual intercourse, robbery, kidnapping for ransom, and related offenses. In the negotiated deal, he was convicted only of felony robbery.

Had the case gone to trial, Thurgood Matthews, his lawyer, said he would have challenged allegations that a sex crime and kidnapping occurred.

Matthews told the court his client's actions were tied to a lack of treatment for abuse he suffered as a child.

"It was a horrendous ordeal by folks he trusted," Matthews said. "The term abuse doesn't even begin to describe it."

Covington said that she recognized his traumatizing childhood, but also that she was concerned that Casey's crimes had escalated. "It's not an excuse to make other people victims," she said.

Casey told the court that "my life has been nothing more than bad decision followed by bad decision."

In 2010 he was convicted of arranging a date with a man on Craigslist, then showing up at his house, only to steal his credit card, keys, and phone before fleeing, prosecutors said.

Casey was sentenced to 9-23 months for that theft. He was also convicted in 2013 of theft and sentenced to 3-12 months. He also pleaded guilty to forgery in another case.

Jim Carpenter, chief of the Family Violence and Sexual Assault Unit, said Casey's methods show how easy it can be to reach into other people's lives through dating apps.

"You have to be careful about meeting people through Internet websites and social media," he said.