Police in Texas have arrested an 18 year-old man after he claimed to have found another man outside his house in the boot of a car.

24 year-old Arron Keahey first spoke to 18 year-old Brice Johnson on the dating app MeetMe, but when he arrived he was immediately beaten up. ‘He started getting all frustrated and talking all angrily,’ Keahey told WFAA-TV. ‘I don’t remember anything after that.’

The attack on 2 September, which was the Labour Day public holiday in the US, left Keahey with broken facial bones that required plastic surgery. He also suffered nerve damage and had some teeth knocked out.

The beating follows a spate of attacks on gay men or suspected gay men in New York, with a 70% increase up to May this year, and a likely doubling by the end of the year, as reported in So So Gay earlier this month.

Police arrested Johnson and charged him with aggravated assault, causing serious bodily injury.