News

Mar 23, 2023

Woman accusing Andrew Tate of rape says she lost consciousness: ‘I thought I was going to die’

A British woman who has accused Andrew Tate of raping her and strangling her

A British woman who has accused Andrew Tate of raping her and strangling her until she lost consciousness says she feared the misogynistic influencer was going to kill her.

The 30-year-old, who is planning to launch civil legal action against Tate, told The Independent that the social media personality told her he owned her and wanted to kill her after they had sex.

She is joining three other alleged victims who are represented by a UK law firm that announced in April it was planning to launch civil legal action against Tate, a former kickboxing world champion turned "success coach".

A spokesperson for Tate said the influencer "vehemently denies these accusations" and stressed "all sexual acts that Andrew has partaken in have been consensual".

The British women, whose cases have been taken on by the law firm McCue Jury & Partners, accuse Tate of perpetrating violent sexual and physical assaults against them, claiming they endured injuries and psychiatric damage. They also accuse him of subjecting them to coercive and controlling behaviour.

The fourth woman has now come forward and made allegations of rape and assault against Tate, saying that she first met the influencer on a night out in her hometown of Luton in 2014 when she was 20.

Tate initially appeared "charming" and they got "along very well", she said, adding they went back together and had sex but "nothing particularly out of the ordinary happened".

She claimed they met up again a few months later and Tate began to choke her and "continued to do so" while they were having sex.

"He put his hands around my throat and strangled me until I lost consciousness," she added. "Then when I came back around again, he was still having sex with me. It was very scary because he is obviously quite a big guy."

She warned that the ordeal was "absolutely terrifying", saying that she had "no oxygen" and it "took a while to come around", adding: "I thought I was going to die".

Afterwards, he said "aggressive things" to her in bed, saying "he was going to kill me or that he owned me" and "I belonged to him", she added.

"After our second encounter, my view is that he is definitely misogynistic, and obsessed with control and asserting himself," she said. "I don't think I could think of anything else after what he did to me."

It has been "incredibly difficult" watching all the media coverage of Tate from afar and it has had a "bad effect" on her mental health, she explained.

"Even though I have tried to block his content from my TikTok and Instagram, it keeps popping up, and he is always on TV and in the media and in conversation," she said. "Knowing what he did to me and having to be bombarded with all of that is really, really difficult."

She decided to seek justice after seeing other women "sharing their stories" and feeling "less alone".

Discussing Tate's misogynistic social media content, she said it "makes me feel a bit sad that someone with such hateful views is getting so much attention."

Tate's spokesperson told The Independent that he "vehemently denies these accusations and does not condone violence of any kind towards women".

He added: "All sexual acts that Andrew has partaken in have been consensual and agreed upon before by both parties.

"Andrew strongly encourages women who have experienced assault, in any form, to report it to the relevant authorities. We will not be commenting any further on anyone's alleged intention to pursue legal action unless such action is submitted to the authorities."

Tate, who has been banned from a number of social media platforms for hate speech and voicing misogynistic views, was arrested in Romania in late December alongside his brother, Tristan Tate, and two other suspects. They are accused of human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women.

The influencer was released from jail with his younger brother at the beginning of April after they won an appeal to be held under house arrest. All four deny the allegations and none have been charged.

The claimants involved in the pending UK civil legal action, who are aged in their late twenties and early thirties, claim the offences occurred between 2013 and 2016 while the social media personality was based in Britain.

McCue Jury & Partners are trying to raise money for the proceedings via crowdfunding, with a CrowdJustice campaign already amassing over 500 donations amounting to nearly £15,000. The victims hope police in the UK will reopen their investigation into Tate.

Jack Beeston, Associate at McCue Jury & Partners, said: "We have been instructed by a fourth alleged victim of Andrew Tate, who joins our three existing clients.

"We fully support any survivor of sexual assault who has the strength and conviction to come forward and tell their story, and are proud of our clients for doing so. We are taking their allegations incredibly seriously and will provide our clients with every support in their quest to obtain justice and accountability. We are honoured to represent them."

Last month, exclusive data from YouGov, shared with The Independent, showed around a quarter of young men agree with Tate's views on how women should be treated.

Campaigners said the influencer is a "legitimising force" for misogynistic ideas and his luxurious lifestyle is "a dangerous mask" for "violent and misogynistic content", which is "drip-fed" to his audience.

The Independent previously reported on research by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), which unearthed 47 videos of r Tate pushing what it describes as "extreme misogyny".

The report uncovered adverts on videos where Tate discusses fighting women, saying "grip her up by the neck" in a video, which has been viewed 1.6 million times, as well as referring to putting his "imprint" on 18 to 19-year-old women in footage viewed 8.4 million times.