UK ‘Swatting’ hostage hoaxer led police to shoot man in US

A UK hoaxer whose fake call to police in the US led to the shooting of an innocent man by officers believing they were dealing with a hostage situation, has been spared jail.

Robert Walker-McDaid, from Coventry, rang a terrorism hotline in Maryland, prompting a Swat (special weapons and tactics) police unit to be sent to his victim’s home where he was shot with plastic bullets.

Walker-McDaid had posed as Tyran Dobbs and said he had explosives and was holding hostages. Mr Dobbs suffered serious life-changing facial injuries when he was subsequently shot twice, in 2015, Warwick Crown Court heard.

The defendant is the first in the UK to be charged over the phenomenon known as “swatting”, according to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which worked on the case with the US Department of Justice and the FBI.

Read more: BBC News