Man accuses 19-year-old of holding him hostage because he is gay

A 50-year-old American man has told police that he was abused and held hostage by a teenager in Framingham, Massachusetts, because he is gay.

Nineteen-year-old Jackson Sugrue (pictured) has been accused of a hate crime for also allegedly beating and starving his accuser.

Police said they encountered the 50-year-old this past Saturday, barefoot and bloodied, saying that he had escaped a church basement where he was kept against his will for four days.

The older man claims that after they took drugs together, Sugrue attacked and terrorised him, hitting him with a coffee table and a fire extinguisher, standing on his neck and shouting: “I know you like me. I know you are gay.”

The teenager has been charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault, witness intimidation and committing a hate crime.

Sugrue pleaded not guilty and claims that he was the victim in the incident. He is out on $1,000 bail, with his lawyer stating that the older man had been trying to take advantage of him.

Sugrue’s mother, Teresa Sugrue, told the Boston Herald that the men were in some kind of friendship that she and her husband did not approve of.

“It’s a hell that we’re living in,” Teresa Sugrue said. “It’s a one-sided story. We’re helpers, we’re not haters. This is a person that we tried to help, that we gave rides to work to, that I bought dishes and glasses for. We even paid this guy’s electric bill.

“The bottom line is, my son shouldn’t have gone into the basement with (the man), but it was someone he trusted. He is a heartfelt child. He finds the wrong people to be with. It’s a story every mother has. He had a connection with this gentleman that I just don’t understand,” she said.

Sugrue will appear in court again on 1 August.