Four women suing the social media influencer Andrew Tate over sex abuse and coercive control are seeking 100,000 pounds ($200,000) in damages, London’s High Court has heard.
Papers filed last week accuse the online influencer, a self-described misogynist, of rape and sexual assault, and of pointing a gun at a woman’s face.
Lawyers acting for the women in the civil case say it is the first of its kind in the UK.
The four women, who have been granted anonymity, allege Mr Tate abused them between 2013 and 2015.
Court papers seen by news agency AFP claim Mr Tate, a former professional kickboxer, grabbed one woman by the throat several times in 2015. He is also accused of assaulting her with a belt.
In court filings, the women’s lawyers also say one woman was threatened with a gun as Mr Tate said “you’re going to do as I say or there’ll be hell to pay”.
A second woman alleges he strangled her without her consent during sex in 2015.
A third accuses him of raping her in 2013, and a fourth said Mr Tate throttled her until she passed out during sex, then continued to have sex and threatened to kill her.
Two of the women say they were in an intimate relationship with him, while two worked for Mr Tate’s online webcam business.
Mr Tate, 38, denies the allegations. Mr Tate’s lawyer called the claims a “fabrication” and a “pack of lies”.
The British-American internet personality has become one of the biggest figures of the so-called “manosphere”, and has previously described himself as a misogynist.
The civil case comes after the UK Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided in 2019 not to take action.
The lawsuit had its first preliminary hearing at the British High Court on Tuesday ahead of a trial likely to start in early 2027.
Judge Richard Armstrong told a preliminary hearing of the civil case on Tuesday that the claimants were “seeking damages likely to reach six figures”, and the trial could last three weeks.
Mr Tate’s lawyer Vanessa Marshall said her client intended to give evidence in his defence at trial.
He was not required to attend Tuesday’s hearing in person.
The claimants’ lawyer Anne Studd said that “this will be the first occasion (coercive control) has been brought before the High Court in a civil context”, to decide whether it amounts to an intentional infliction of harm under English law.
Ms Studd described coercive control in court filings as “a form of grooming and manipulation where the victim becomes less and less able to respond in what might be perceived as a normal way”.
Mr Tate and his brother Tristan are under investigation in a criminal case in Romania over allegations of forming an organised criminal group, human trafficking, trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor and money laundering, which they deny.
The pair flew to the US in February after Romanian prosecutors lifted a travel ban, flying to Romania last month to fulfil legal obligations.
Reuters/AFP
