They knew they were likely destroying his life -- everyone who'd google him would see
The question might be, how many trolls (or maybe it's all the same one, they write the same way & conveniently back each other up...

)
....does it take to point out a clever typo? But back on topic ---
If you do something you KNOW will make someone INCREDIBLY miserable and might follow them for YEARS, possibly interfering with their life in many aspects, including perhaps even employment,
you therefore know you're doing such significant damage to the person as to make their lives literally unbearable ----
Even if that doesn't drive them to kill themselves, you're screwing with their life and causing a lot of harm and a TON of STRESS which is actually
another killer -----
These intelligent bastards knew they were inflicting severe cruel & unusual punishment which could circulate for the REST OF THIS YOUNG MAN'S LIFE
---- it's not a huge stretch to say
they were knowingly destroying him,
they just didn't expect it to occur so quickly and absolutely
or to find their faces and names plastered all over the news right next to his....
They sentenced him to a lifetime of ridicule and put his most private interactions up for the world to watch ---- That's HUGE DAMAGE -----
Once his "sex tape" is out it's PERMANENT and it's IMMEDIATELY GLOBAL -----
he'd never get away from it,
every employer could maybe Google his name and get ----- Homosexual sex ----- Many won't tolerate hetero sex publicized, forget homosexual acts ----- It could hurt his employment ----
This could have obviously greatly subtracted from his quality of life at the very least (in a homophobic world especially...)
They set out to destroy his life for kicks, and just didn't get to torment him as long as they anticipated.

It's not "vengeance" either ----
It's not even CLOSE to justice for what these cowardly little bastards did/would have done to him ----- and who knows how many others.
They --- and others like them --- NEED to be made an example of NOW to stop this shit from continuing and ---- just serving a fraction of the sentence they would've forced upon him. Five years doesn't even approach...
Thankfully at least we all now know who they are.