Court documents, online records and interviews with people who knew Mr. McArthur reveal the 66-year-old landscaper had a history of combining sex and violence. Peter Sgromo had known Mr. McArthur for more than a decade when Mr. McArthur reached out to him last spring on the Bear411 gay dating app, asking to get together. They agreed to meet at a bar in Toronto's Gay Village, he said. Afterward, they got into the back of Mr. McArthur's van, parked on Church Street.
"It was strange it was empty. The seats were taken out," Mr. Sgromo recalled. At the very back was a single seat. "It was like this was a little travelling playroom."
He says Mr. McArthur took poppers, amyl nitrate, a drug that provides a temporary rush. The two began to have sex.
But Mr. Sgromo says the interaction turned rough too rough for his liking. He alleges that Mr. McArthur suddenly grabbed his neck and twisted his head down to his crotch violently. "I wasn't weirded out enough at that point to suspect that I was in any danger," he recalled. "It certainly killed the mood for me. I was kind of surprised."
