Andrew Tate has been known to try to walk disconnected his misogyny and his systematic humiliation and degradation of women arsenic conscionable ‘an act’. But allegations of rape and grooming propose that his capacity was each excessively real, and pulls nan rug from underneath nan ideology driving his movement.
When we returned to nan UK aft confronting Tate astatine his office successful Romania for our tv documentary exposing who he really is, we received a flurry of emails from women who had known him astatine his location municipality of Luton backmost successful 2015 and 2016. Their stories were each similar.
They were successful their early 20s erstwhile he’d approached them, either online aliases done a antheral friend who claimed he was ‘friends pinch Tate’ and recruiting ‘models’ for his caller business. When they were put successful touch and said to him, he would move betwixt flattery, power and insults, calling nan girls beautiful 1 moment, past making demands aliases calling them stupid.
Andrew Tate, pictured posing successful boxing gloves, bragged that he was making immense amounts of money moving a institution retired of a workplace successful a luxury penthouse flat pinch his brother
Tate 2 young female companions. He is said to move betwixt flattery, power and insults, calling girls beautiful 1 moment, past making demands aliases calling them stupid
None of these women really met Tate aliases went done pinch his proposals of work. All of them felt ‘something was up’.
But past we were contacted by a female who claimed to person been Andrew Tate’s ‘girlfriend’ (she placed nan connection successful inverted commas herself) successful 2015. Sally, arsenic we will telephone her, told america that she was 19 erstwhile she first met Tate. They messaged connected Facebook, and he yet asked her retired for a drink.
She recalled: ‘He was really, really cocky, for illustration you spot really he is now, but he could besides beryllium rather bully and sweet.’ After a successful date, they continued their relationship, which is when, Sally told us, he mentioned his pornographic webcam company, successful which girls performed online for paying customers.
Tate bragged that he was making immense amounts of money moving nan institution retired of a workplace successful a luxury penthouse flat pinch his brother, and he promised her that if she worked for him, he could make her incredibly rich. She wouldn’t moreover request to slumber pinch anyone, he said – each she’d person to do was execute by herself connected webcam.
Sally had ne'er done thing for illustration this before, but she was young and successful a minimum-wage job, and nan proposition sounded interesting. Tate told her that, pinch her bully looks, they would some make immense amounts of money together ‘as a couple’.
Sally agreed, and Tate took her to a pub to loosen her up pinch intoxicant earlier her first show. They past went to his ‘luxury apartment’, which turned retired to beryllium a dingy two-bedroom level supra a Londis mini-market.
On that first nighttime she sewage a glimpse of what was to come. ‘We were conscionable sitting connected nan furniture and wholly retired of nan bluish Andrew punched maine successful my arm. I went to nan bath and cried, but erstwhile I came retired he was super, ace nice.’ She was confused, not knowing what to make of Tate aliases nan business she was in. He persuaded her to discontinue her occupation and activity information nan timepiece connected webcam. She didn’t time off his level for 3 days. He told her not to connection her friends and that, arsenic his girlfriend, she would nary longer beryllium capable to speak to immoderate different men.
Tate had told Sally he had an existing successful webcam business, but location were nary different workers erstwhile she arrived successful nan flat. After a mates of weeks, caller girls began to arrive. They would beryllium divided up, she said, either ‘managed’ by Andrew aliases his relative Tristan, and nan girls would beryllium required to slumber successful their respective manager’s bed.
Sally claimed that Tate started to maltreatment nan girls verbally, ‘calling america lazy hoes, dumb hoes, worldly for illustration that’, but quickly progressed to utilizing beingness violence. ‘I saw him smack girls pinch a loop because they wanted a lie-in,’ Sally went on, her sound cracking.
‘He utilized to strangle us, choke us, and not successful a intersexual way. It was wholly random. He would conscionable drawback you by nan neck, aliases travel into nan room and opportunity thing like, “Which bitch americium I gonna strangle today?”’ Sally recalled a clip erstwhile Tate strangled her truthful severely nan humor vessels successful her eyes burst. Tristan was kinder to her than Andrew, but according to women we said to he excessively could beryllium profoundly unpleasant to his ain ‘employees’.
One representation that stood retired for Sally was Tristan roaming nan level wearing a pirate chapeau and wielding a integrative beard that he would deed nan women with, bragging that he was ‘captain of this money ship’.
Sally had been moving for Tate for astir six weeks erstwhile he brought successful a caller young female we’ll telephone Helen – personification Sally recognised from school. As 1 of ‘Andrew’s girls’ she was required to slumber successful nan furniture pinch Sally and Tate betwixt cam sessions.
However, dissimilar Sally, Helen had a fellow and refused Tate’s advances. For her, it was strictly astir nan money: nan £15-an-hour costs seemed charismatic to her, contempt nan truth that Tate himself would regularly gain £500 for each of their online sessions. But, Sally recalled, to her horror, waking up successful furniture pinch Tate and Helen 1 morning, earlier going to nan bath to shower. ‘When I came back, I saw him raping her.’
Helen near nan location almost consecutive away, but Sally stayed for a spot longer. ‘I didn’t want to activity for him but I needed nan money.
I suggested to him and Tristan that I could activity from location but I’d still springiness them a stock of nan money. They conscionable laughed astatine me, called maine a dumb hoe, saying this was their business, and they had trained me, and they would not fto maine leave. Then 1 day, I was really tired, and I didn’t want to webcam, and Andrew threatened to “beat nan s*** out” of me.
‘That’s erstwhile I knew I needed to get retired of there.’
Sally put america successful touch pinch Helen, who complete nan telephone confirmed nan allegations of beingness unit and verbal maltreatment earlier recounting that time ‘when he raped me’. She burst into tears earlier hanging up nan phone.
In a consequent call, she explained that it was still highly difficult to talk astir what happened, and successful summation that she was making love personification who wasn’t comfortable pinch her moreover mentioning it.
She said that a fewer months before, arsenic Tate was becoming famous, she’d tried to stock her communicative connected TikTok, only to find hundreds of Tate supporters abusing her and past reporting her relationship to nan tract managers, starring to it being removed.
Helen didn’t deliberation she was successful a spot to beryllium capable to spell connected camera for our documentary, but she was keen for Sally to speak publically astir what had happened to them both. Sally recounted her and Helen’s communicative successful a filmed interview, having decided that she would not let herself to beryllium intimidated by Tate and his followers.
There had ever been questions astir Tate and his behaviour towards women, peculiarly nan ones who ‘worked’ for his webcam company, but present was personification giving america a nonstop and elaborate relationship of beingness and intersexual abuse.
It was amazingly brave of her to work together to spell public, speaking retired against 1 of nan astir celebrated men connected nan internet, whose fans had a estimation for harassing his critics online. She was determined. ‘I want group to cognize what he did to us,’ she said.
We asked Sally if she had reported Tate to nan police. She told america she had phoned nan master Metropolitan Police section that dealt pinch rape investigations and an serviceman had interviewed her astatine her home. But thing further came of it.
Helen besides reported her alleged rape, to Hertfordshire Police, and successful nan summertime of 2015 an investigation into Tate was opened. He was arrested for questioning, but past released.
A twelvemonth went by, and Sally was phoned by nan constabulary pinch immoderate bombshell news – Tate would beryllium appearing connected nan reality TV show Big Brother. She was horrified. How could its producers work together to person him on? Although Tate hadn’t been charged astatine this point, and location was nary measurement that nan allegations would person shown up connected immoderate checks during nan show’s casting process, Hertfordshire Police confirmed pinch america that erstwhile they knew Tate was connected nan show, they had contacted nan accumulation company, Endemol Shine, and informed them of nan ongoing investigation into Tate.
The producers decided to support Tate connected nan show for a further 5 days, during which he was shown playing truth aliases situation successful nan basking tub and kissing a topless female contestant. They past removed him from nan show for undisclosed reasons, relating to events ‘outside of nan Big Brother house’.
Concerningly, Tate has schooled galore different men successful nan aforesaid misogynistic activities
The property reported that his ousting was linked to a video that had surfaced of him slapping his ex-girlfriend, and Tate himself endorsed this type of events, releasing a video connected Facebook of nan female saying that it was each portion of a consensual kinky game. Public outrage simmered down.
Here was an early example, pre-dating his existent emergence to fame, of Tate’s expertise to rotation nationalist narratives successful his favour. Despite being removed from Big Brother owed to an ongoing constabulary investigation for rape and beingness assault, he had nan nationalist believing it was because he had made a ‘consensual’ bondage video pinch his ex-partner. Sally and Helen were angry pinch nan Big Brother producers for confronting them pinch their abuser by putting him connected 1 of nan biggest shows successful nan country, but their existent vexation laic pinch nan police.
The 2 women had revenge their criminal complaints pinch nan constabulary soon aft nan alleged events occurred successful 2015, past undergone constabulary interviews.
They had handed complete their phones for inspection (a communal constabulary request astatine nan clip for sexual-assault survivors) and shared their intersexual wellness records because some alleged that Tate had fixed them a sexually transmitted infection. Yet it wasn’t until almost 4 years later, successful July 2019, that nan constabulary passed their cases connected to a lawyer astatine nan Crown Prosecution Service, who would take whether aliases not to proceed pinch a complaint and return nan lawsuit to court.
Astonishingly, nan CPS decided not to prosecute, moreover though it is highly different to person a witnesser successful rape cases, namely Sally witnessing Tate raping Helen.
When we asked nan CPS why, they told america nan lawsuit ‘did not meet our ineligible test, and location was nary realistic imaginable of a conviction’.
The full acquisition had near Sally and Helen devastated. Sally ended our question and reply pinch a connection to Tate’s followers: ‘All these young men travel him and deliberation he’s specified a awesome guy, and he’s their idol. There are amended domiciled models retired there. Don’t beryllium fooled by each nan money and nan bully cars and each nan women. Real men don’t laic their hands connected women.’
We put Helen’s and Sally’s allegations to Tate via his lawyer. Tate, unsurprisingly, denied each of them and accused Sally and Helen of wanting money because he fired them. He considered nan CPS’s determination not to complaint him arsenic grounds that ‘I americium innocent’.
Yet we were receiving much reports from women who had been abused by Tate. One of them – we’ll telephone her Amelia – told america she grew up successful Luton and had known Tate since 2009. After bumping into him astatine a nightclub successful 2013, they started dating. Amelia was 20 – 7 years younger than Tate astatine nan clip – and had only been successful 1 superior relationship. Tate was saccharine astatine first, she said.
‘I tin understand why group find him funny because I did for years. And that’s very enticing: an intelligent, gangly man who’s a kick-boxer. Why would you not want to walk clip pinch him?’
But she ever knew he had a horrible broadside to him, which emerged nan first clip she went to his flat. They were kissing connected nan furniture and he told her he was debating ‘whether I should rape you aliases not’. Suddenly, he grabbed her cervix and ‘started strangling me, screaming “Take your effing trousers off, bitch.”
‘I was scared. I’ve ne'er been strangled before. I didn’t cognize if he was going to stop. Whenever you deliberation astir being successful that situation, you deliberation you’re going to conflict back. But I’m telling you, you don’t. Because if you conflict back, what other is he going to do to you? He’s a 6ft 2in champion kick-boxer, for God’s sake.’
Tate leaves nan Court of Appeal successful Bucharest. The Romanian authorities person approved his extradition to nan UK
Amelia said Tate past raped her, saying things like: ‘Who do you beryllium to?’ and ‘Say my f****** name, different I’ll termination you.’
Amelia was traumatised, but hopeless to not spot herself arsenic a victim, truthful she says she agreed to spot Tate again, only for him to rape her again, this clip successful a parked Range Rover he told her was his ‘rape van’. After this, she collapsed things disconnected pinch him.
In a bid of matter messages she showed us, she asked him, ‘What do you get from maine hating it?’ To which he replied: ‘Because I’m a unspeakable person. And I emotion raping you. And watching u fto maine while still debating if it’s a bully thought aliases not.’
There were sound notes successful which Tate said: ‘The much you didn’t for illustration it nan much it turned maine on.’ In another, he said: ‘Are you earnestly truthful offended I strangled you a small bit? You didn’t walk out. Chill out.’
He sent her a video of him breaking a shot bat complete his shin, on pinch a connection to punctual her ‘of nan calibre of man I am. I americium 1 of nan astir vulnerable men connected this planet. Sometimes you hide precisely really fortunate you were to get f***ed by me. Don’t forget, I’m a bad boy.’
It wasn’t until 2014, astir six months aft nan first alleged rape, that Amelia revenge a title pinch Bedfordshire Police. She told america that nan ‘police were horrible’ and claimed they asked nan friend she brought pinch her if Amelia had ‘learning difficulties’. This, she said, made her consciousness incapable to prosecute nan claim. Instead, she opted to ‘log it’. She past moved to a different municipality to get distant from Tate.
Then, 1 time astatine work, she was sitting astatine her table erstwhile she heard nan unique sound of her alleged rapist connected 1 of her colleagues’ phones. Amelia froze. ‘Who is that?’ she asked. ‘Oh, it’s this feline called Andrew Tate. He’s really large connected TikTok.’ Amelia was successful disbelief. ‘He conscionable kept appearing everywhere. I couldn’t moreover spell connected societal media without seeing his face.’
As Tate’s fame grew complete nan coming months, Amelia’s intelligence wellness worsened. But aft seeing Sally spell nationalist pinch nan allegations, she felt emboldened to spell public, too, wanting to extremity nan aforesaid point from happening to different women. ‘When I saw he’d been arrested successful Romania, I was relieved,’ Amelia explained. ‘But I was besides so, truthful angry pinch nan constabulary here. Sally, Helen and I gave them each this grounds and yet they fto him get distant pinch it.
‘He was capable to conscionable spell connected pinch his life, hurting nevertheless galore much girls.’
What is doubly concerning astir Tate’s activities is that he has schooled galore different men successful nan aforesaid activities – grounds of which came from a young female successful nan US who contacted america past year. ‘Amanda’ (not her existent name) was 19 and moving astatine Starbucks erstwhile she met ‘Ryan’, a seemingly successful and handsome older man, almost 20 years her senior.They said online for months, he seemed saccharine and charming and yet he asked her retired connected a date. ‘He picked maine up and we went consecutive to a hotel. We didn’t person dinner. We didn’t get drinks. Didn’t chat fundamentally astatine all. He shoved maine onto my knees and had activity pinch maine for hours. It felt beautiful horrible.’
Ryan past suggested she activity for him connected webcam and he pestered her to agree, ‘selling maine this thought of really awesome it would beryllium and really bully I would beryllium astatine it’.
Eventually, Amanda gave successful and he introduced her to different man, ‘Eric’, astatine whose location she did nan webcamming.
She was allowed to support 20 per cent of nan money she earned, pinch Ryan and Eric splitting nan different 80 per cent. ‘They made maine activity 8 to 10 hours a day, and if I had what they considered a “bad day”, Eric would return retired his anger towards maine successful beingness ways.’
Both men, she said, were members of Tate’s War Room, his world web of ‘alpha males’, and ‘I’m beautiful judge that they learned each this from him.’ They perpetually said astir Tate arsenic nan man they aspired to beryllium like, nan man who had made millions doing precisely what they were doing.
According to her, they were perpetually connected their phones to different members of nan War Room, discussing ‘their girls’.
We asked if she had immoderate thought really precocious up Ryan and Eric mightiness beryllium successful nan War Room aliases whether they were conscionable paying customers. Amanda told us: ‘Pretty precocious up, I think. Ryan would talk astir really he was a maestro astatine this [webcamming] and he taught different men really to do it. Ryan had loads of pictures of him and Andrew together. If you asked him, he was for illustration his champion friend aliases 1 of his brothers.’
After immoderate first hesitancy, Amanda told america much astir her abusers, referring america to nan Instagram relationship of Ryan (real sanction Jonathan). This identified him arsenic a erstwhile US Air Force pilot, who described himself arsenic ‘Builder of Men. Master of Logistics. Weaver of Legends. Craftsman of Dreams.’ His relationship had an emoji of a bicep and a wad of dollars.
We knew him arsenic ‘Money Pilot’, 1 of nan War Room’s astir elder generals. Our suspicions were confirmed. If nan War Room was school men Tate’s methodology of misleading and recruiting women for online activity work, it could beryllium 1 of nan largest grooming networks successful nan world.
How acold it reached was demonstrated erstwhile we were contacted by 22-year-old ‘Maria’ from Argentina. She excessively fell for ‘a tiny guy’ who lured her into a narration and past suggested making a page for her connected nan OnlyFans website, from which they could some make money.
She began making content, but she ne'er controlled nan relationship aliases knew nan password, and she wasn’t allowed to support immoderate of nan money – each of which smacks of nan Andrew Tate playbook.
She alleges nan man became progressively controlling and was sometimes violent. ‘I retrieve not being capable to spot my friends, not being capable to spell retired to parties, aliases moreover nan park.’
The toxic influencer winks defiantly arsenic he's led from tribunal by a Romanian policeman successful March
Maria sent america a photograph of nan man from his Instagram account, showing him adjacent to Tate astatine a high-end restaurant. He was besides a personnel of nan War Room and he took her to a War Room arena astatine a luxury penthouse successful Buenos Aires, wherever men successful their 30s and 40s were each accompanied by young women, for illustration her, successful their precocious teens and early 20s.
She was led to judge that nan War Room was a affirmative point – a nine wherever men could bent retired and web pinch like-minded individuals. But arsenic she came to find retired much astir Tate, and arsenic nan narration became much abusive, she collapsed disconnected contact.
But, done us, she wanted nan world to cognize what nan men of nan War Room were being taught by Tate: ‘They find a female and effort to make her autumn successful emotion pinch them. And erstwhile they are successful emotion and they person power complete this person, they usage it for their profit.’
Footnote: In March 2024, Bedfordshire Police unit announced they were investigating nan Tate brothers for alleged crimes of intersexual aggression betwixt 2012 and 2015 successful nan UK. The alleged victims successful this investigation are new, nan alleged crimes antecedently unheard of.
The Romanian authorities person approved nan extradition of nan Tate brothers, pending nan conclusion of their proceedings there, meaning they will yet person to look tribunal successful nan UK.
© Jamie Tahsin and Matt Shea 2024
- Adapted from Clown World by Jamie Tahsin and Matt Shea (Quercus, £20) which will beryllium published connected September 26. To bid a transcript for £18 (offer valid to 12/10/24; UK P&P free connected orders complete £25) spell to mailshop.co.uk/books aliases telephone 020 3176 2937.