BREAKING: ANDREW TATE SUED BY FOUR WOMEN ALLEGING RAPES, BEATINGS, BLACKMAIL, INFECTIONS, ABUSE

Content warning: This article contains mentions of extreme sexual violence.

Social media influencer Andrew Tate has been served with a lawsuit by four women who collectively allege he raped, throttled, beat them and infected them with STDs - amongst many other instances of intense abuse, The Lead can reveal. 

The papers were served by Romanian bailiffs to the security guard who answered the door at the former kickboxer’s compound in Bucharest, at 3pm local time today, May 8. Lawyers for the women were on hand to oversee the service of the claim. 

The serving follows up on a letter before action sent to Tate by the women’s lawyers McCue, Jury and Partners (MJP), revealed by Rolling Stone, The Sun and other publications last year.  It outlines in graphic detail the alleged abuse inflicted by Tate on the four women, two of whom were employed by him as camgirls. All four women have been granted anonymity by the High Court given the risk that they will be subjected to threat and abuse and/or other serious harm. 

“We are grateful to the court for recognising the risk posed to the Claimants by granting the anonymity order,” lawyer Matthew Jury said in a statement. Now that the Claim has formally been issued by the Court and served on Tate, he must either admit the allegations against him or defend them in Court. We hope this will end the disinformation that has been consistently spread about our clients by obliging Tate only to tell the truth concerning the allegations he faces in England. Any contempt of court or attempt to pervert the course of justice in these proceedings by Tate or others will be dealt with decisively.”

Horrific allegations of abuse 

While MJP would not share the exact contents of the document  served this afternoon, they confirmed to The Lead that it affirms the allegations levelled against the influencer in the 2023 letter. According to reports over the past year in The Rolling Stone, The Sun and elsewhere, these allegations include choking two of the women until the vessels in their eyes burst; threatening one with a firearm; raping three of the women - one is alleged to have  been raped by Tate as many as five times - and attempting to blackmail one with nude images of her. Several of the women allege Tate infected them with an STD during the rapes. 

The allegations of beating and threats of beating by Tate read all the more harrowing, considering his much advertised prowess as a one time champion kickboxer. In a 2017 video with actor Idris Elba, the influencer boasted of his knowledge of vulnerable areas on the human body. “The torso has the solar plexus, it has the kidneys, it has the liver,” Tate explained at the time. "Any shot in one of these is going to hurt.” 

Before resorting to costly civil litigation, the women reported the allegations to the police, but the Hertfordshire force closed their case after the Crown Prosecution Service declined to prosecute Tate. Despite McCue, Jury and Partners taking on the case on a not for profit basis, the overall litigation costs could amount to £250,000, and the women have launched a crowdfunding campaign to cover the costs.

Even if won, compensation sums could be meagre

Despite the debilitating physical and psychological harm they alleged, the compensation sum requested is paltry compared to Tate’s millionaire lifestyle and purported income. The compensation claim for each individual’s psychiatric harm is only likely to amount to around £115,000 ($144,000). This is the maximum individual compensation sum allowed under English law, which has a tariff menu set for severity of psychiatric damage. 

The individual sums that could be obtained in the best case scenario each amount is barely more than  three years’ average wage in England. The attacks are alleged to have occurred a decade ago, with the trauma dogging the women ever since,  and the effects of the trauma are likely to be lifelong. Additional compensation can also be sought for associated costs connected to the assaults, including for the costs of therapy and other treatment, but that needs to be precisely accounted for. 

Tate’s worth - shared with his brother Tristan - was recently reported by The Sun to stand about £10 million, £8 million of them in luxury vehicles. This suggests the totality of the four women’s damages is worth considerably less, in an English court, than the average cost of one of Tate's sports cars.

"This only highlights that while the women have every right to compensation if their allegations are proved, this is not about the money for them but about truth, justice and accountability, “Jury said. 

In a statement released via MJP, one of the women said: “We are very pleased that the court has issued our claim, and the case is progressing. We only wish that the police had taken proper action when we made our complaints almost ten years ago.  We are determined to bring Andrew Tate to justice, and this is a major step towards that goal.” 

The High Court claim stands alongside other legal trouble faced by the Tate brothers, including a criminal prosecution in Romania for human trafficking and rape of as many as seven victims, and a separate criminal investigation in the UK on allegations of rape and human trafficking of three other women.

Andrew Tate has repeatedly denied all allegations against him - including the allegations by the four litigants, in a statement to Rolling Stone when the letter before action was served in June 2023. We will update this article with comment from Tate or his representatives on these new developments as soon as it is received. 

If you’ve been affected by this story, you can reach out to Rape Crisis: Call 0808 802 9999 for specialist support for women and girls who have experienced sexual violence, open every day from 12pm to 2:30pm and 7pm to 9:30pm.

You can also contact the National Domestic Abuse Helpline: Call 0808 2000 247 for confidential support and advice, available 24/7.

TAKE ACTION 

Donate to the women's private litigation against Tate here.