Four women in the U.K. have now united to prepare legal actions against Andrew Tate, the misogynistic social media personality, alleging rape, physical assaults, and coercive behavior. The legal firm McCue Jury & Partners served Tate with a legal letter of claim at the Bucharest residence, where he’s serving house arrest pending charges of human trafficking, on Wednesday. The firm expects to engage legal proceedings in London’s High Court sometime in the weeks to come.
“After such a long fight for justice, it feels good to finally be taking a positive step forward,” one of the plaintiffs, whose identity was not made public, said in a statement. “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.”
“This is a major step in U.K. survivors of Tate’s alleged crimes campaign for justice by taking their fight straight to Tate’s door,” attorney Matthew Jury said in a statement, which included a link to the accusers’ crowdfunding site. “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.” (As Rolling Stone has previously reported, Tate uses “the Matrix” as a metaphor for ordinary nine-to-five work.)
“Andrew Tate categorically denies the veracity of the accusations brought by the lawyers of the anonymous women in the U.K.,” a spokesperson for Tate tells Rolling Stone. “Considering the collective approach of the four women, and the channels chosen for communications, the opportunistic character of this endeavor becomes obvious, as justice is sought in the court, not in the press…. We will not give in to these acts of intimidation that use the press and the manipulation of public opinion as their only tool.”
Tate and his brother, Tristan, were moved to house arrest in Bucharest in March. Authorities there had detained them on suspicion of human trafficking, rape, and organized crime, charges which they have vehemently denied. “[The Tates] will continue to fight to clear their name of these fabricated accusations,” a spokesperson for the brothers said at the time.
Rolling Stone’s profile, from March, reported that Tate exaggerated his mythos and that his misogynistic empire was built on baseless braggadocio. “I don’t necessarily believe a word he says,” a source told the magazine. “I don’t trust a word he says. Now, he feels he has to say [these things] because there’s a huge army of little weirdos out there who want him to … [but] he’s just one of them guys. He’s a liar. He’s not trustworthy. It’s all a myth. It’s all a lie that he’s making himself believe.”
This article was updated on June 14 at 2:58 p.m. to include a statement from Tate’s spokesperson.