Spared jail, UK hoax caller who sparked a SWAT team raid in U.S.
A BRITISH video gamer was spared jail yesterday despite a hoax call he made to US police leading to a SWAT team shooting a man twice.
Robert Walker-McDaid is the first person in the UK to be charged with offences associated with ‘swatting’ – placing hoax calls to implicate others in serious crimes to trigger an armed response. Warwick Crown Court heard that the 28- year- old rang a Maryland state terrorism hotline from his home in Coventry, 3,500 miles away, to make the ‘ swat’ call on behalf of an online gaming friend in the US.
The friend, Zachary Lee, told him that he wanted Tyran Dobbs targeted. Walker-McDaid then rang the hotline posing as Mr Dobbs – whom he did not know – and claimed to be holding hostages.
As a result of the call, made in 2015, armed officers descended on Mr Dobbs’ home, which led to him being shot in the chest and face with plastic bullets. Yesterday, more than nine years after the incident, Walker-McDaid walked free from court with a suspended sentence. Prosecutor Matthew Barnes said the defendant had claimed to have explosives and be demanding a $15,000 (£12,051) ransom to be paid within 15 minutes or else the hostages would be executed. After the incident, Zachary Lee was convicted of providing false information and was sentenced in the US to two years in prison.
Mr Dobbs needed to have reconstructive facial surgery. In a TV interview after the shooting, he asked: ‘How did y’all not trace this call back [to the UK]?’
US police and Interpol traced Walker-McDaid to his Coventry home via his Skype account with the username ‘Meowobikiniz’. Extradition proceedings began but were blocked, so West Midlands Police took on the case.
Judge Anthony Potter said that the defendant’s remorse, neurodivergence and early guilty plea meant he could be given a 20-month sentence, suspended for 18 months. As swatting is not an offence under UK law, Walker-McDaid was convicted of perverting the course of justice.
‘How did you not trace this call?’