Andrew Tate has been served with legal papers by lawyers representing four of his alleged victims who have accused him of rape and sexual assault.
The four women, in their late 20s and early 30s, are pursuing civil proceedings against the social media influencer and former kickboxer over alleged offences between 2013 and 2016 while he was still living in the UK. A Crowdjustice campaign to support legal action against Tate has raised more than £18,500.
Lawyers from McCue Jury & Partners, who are representing the claimants, said they had delivered the letter to Tate in person on Wednesday at his address in Bucharest, where he is under house arrest pending charges of human trafficking in Romania.
According to the law firm, the aim of the lawsuit is to seek “justice, accountability and compensation for Tate’s victims”, as well as to encourage “a UK criminal investigation into Tate’s crimes in the hope of his prosecution and conviction in the UK, in addition to the charges he is facing in Romania”.
The legal letter details the allegations made by the four women, including violent rapes, serious physical assaults, and controlling and coercive behaviour. They have put Tate on notice that, depending on his response, legal proceedings will be initiated against him at the high court in London in the coming weeks.
One of the women claimed that after meeting Tate in 2014, he assaulted her. She said: “While having sex, he began to choke me and choked me so hard that I lost consciousness. I thought I was going to die. When I woke up, he was continuing to rape me. It is difficult to say that because it is so upsetting, but that is what it was.”
Tate, 36, a British-US citizen with more than 6.5 million Twitter followers, was placed under house arrest in Romania in April after a court overturned a request by prosecutors to extend his detention. Alongside his brother and two Romanian women, Tate faces charges of rape, people trafficking and organised crime. They have denied all the accusations.
One of the claimants who is taking part in the proceedings said: “After such a long fight for justice, it feels good to finally be taking a positive step forward. While this experience has been extremely traumatic for us, we have taken strength in the fact that we have decided to take a stand, and are not alone. We hope that bringing this claim will encourage other people to speak out against their abusers, no matter how powerful they are.”
Matthew Jury, a managing partner of McCue Jury & Partners, said: “This is a major step in UK survivors of Tate’s alleged crimes campaign for justice by taking their fight straight to Tate’s door. The legal papers delivered to Tate today lay bare the gravity and full weight of the accusations against him.
“Despite Tate’s outrageous claims that these women aren’t even real, on reading the papers, he should now recall how real they are. Talk of the ‘Matrix’ and ‘false flags’ hold no weight in court. The survivors look forward to seeing him there.”
A spokesperson for Tate said previously: “We understand there is a lot of interest surrounding Andrew at the moment; however, he vehemently denies these accusations and does not condone violence of any kind towards women. All sexual acts that Andrew has partaken in have been consensual and agreed upon before by both parties.”
Tate’s representatives have been approached for comment.
In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support for rape and sexual abuse on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html.
