A 20-year-old Brisbane boxer, Cooper Watt, has spoken out to warn others against staging "vigilante honeytraps" after he was jailed over an attack on a suspected paedophile he lured to a park. Watt and two underage accomplices posed as a 15-year-old boy on the gay dating app Grindr to arrange a meeting with the 70-year-old victim, then assaulted him and forced him to withdraw cash before leaving him injured. The case highlights growing concern in Australia about young men taking justice into their own hands after being influenced by online "manosphere" content, with prosecutors directly linking the attack to a documentary on the phenomenon.

The group contacted the victim via Grindr, sent a naked image while impersonating a minor, and arranged to meet him at a park in Deception Bay in January 2025, where they called him a paedophile, beat him and forced him to withdraw £3,000 (A$3,000) from an ATM. Watt pleaded guilty to robbery in company with personal violence and was sentenced this week to two years' imprisonment with immediate parole, plus an order to repay the victim A$3,000. He told the Daily Mail he felt remorse and should have gone to police instead, though he denied the attack was premeditated or motivated by the victim's sexuality. The case follows a similar honeytrap-style incident in Brisbane in July, in which 27-year-old Oliver Conroy was fatally assaulted and carjacked, with eleven juveniles since charged.