Lawyers for four women have threatened controversial influencer Andrew Tate with a lawsuit in the English courts over allegations of sexual assault. The British-American former kickboxer — who is currently under house arrest in Romania after having been held over alleged human trafficking and rape along with two Romanian men and three women — was served with legal papers by the London-based law firm McCue Jury and Partners on Wednesday, which outline “the most serious and horrific accusations of his abuse of these vulnerable women.” The woman alleges being coerced into producing pornographic content for social media sites that generated significant financial gains for him and his fellow collaborators. That offense in Romania can lead to a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
The women say they were forced to perform sexual acts in front of other people in a studio while recording videos, which were then distributed on the internet, to generate revenue. They were also told to make “sexually explicit, threatening and abusive statements,” the law firm said. They are seeking compensation and a public apology. The firm hopes their civil claim will also spur Hertfordshire police to reopen the criminal investigation into Tate and his brother Tristan.
One woman, who was 20 when the alleged incident took place and has since become a mother, told BBC Newsnight that she believed her experience with Tate was consensual when it happened in 2014 but that he choked her while they were having sex until she lost consciousness. She told the media outlet that he then continued to rape her after she woke up. She did not report the incident to the police at the time as she did not realize it was a crime until she began to talk about it with friends and read other women’s stories online.
She is joined by three other UK women planning to bring a civil suit against Tate. They are currently fundraising for their case on a crowdfunding platform. Two complainants were webcam models for his internet sex business; the other was in a personal relationship with him.
VICE News has obtained a copy of the legal documents serving notice of the civil claim. They describe the women’s alleged experiences with Tate as “including violent rapes, serious physical assaults, and controlling and coercive behavior.”
A lawyer for the complainants, Matt Jury, told VICE News that they aim to get Tate and his brother to apologize to them publicly. They also want a UK prosecution to follow the Romanian ones and compensation. He says the women have been suffering psychiatric harm and have lost jobs because of their ordeal. Tate and his lawyers have denied the claims. His legal team did not respond to a request for comment on the new allegations.
