BRUTAL

Massachusetts Man Accused of Holding Gay Man Hostage in Basement

The 50-year-old victim said his phone was confiscated and food and water were withheld.

A 19-year-old Massachusetts man is reportedly facing hate crime charges after allegedly holding a gay man hostage for several days and subjecting him to multiple beatings. The suspect, identified as Jackson Sugrue, has been charged with assault and battery using a dangerous weapon and intimidation of a witness, in addition to a civil rights violation charge, according to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office. The 50-year-old victim told investigators “he had been held for four days against his will,” a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office told the New York Daily News. The victim, Otoni Eliseu, told local media outlets Sugrue allegedly confiscated his phone and withheld food and water while holding him captive in the basement of a church in Framingham, a suburb of Boston. “He attacked me on my back, on my butt. And he said, ‘You gay? Yeah, you like me?’” Eliseu said in an interview with Boston 25 News.