Of course anytime anything like this happens where an adult is involved with something bad with a minor they will always point out something about the bad person to get views/publicity.
Whether it's their gender, their sex, sexuality, if they are a racial minority, political person, government person, whatever, it's always something they make a point of mentioning because it's somehow worse when it's not a hetero white male who does it.
You will notice that unless it's something especially heinous people will yawn over anything involving a straight while male.