Andrew Tate's Alleged Victim Speaks Out After 'Silly' Lawsuit

Andrew Tate's "audacity" to sue one of his alleged trafficking victims "strains the imagination," her lawyer has told Newsweek.

The notorious British-American YouTube personality is seeking $5 million from a group of defendants he says caused his arrest in Bucharest in December 2022. Tate and his brother, Tristan, were held by the Romanian organized crime squad, DIICOT, on charges of forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women, human trafficking and evidence tampering. They have said they are innocent.

In July, the Tate brothers filed a lawsuit in Florida against five people, two of whom were women found at the compound by the authorities when DIICOT raided. The other defendants include a parent of a defendant and a male friend. That woman, named as Jane Doe, and her parents are American citizens and residents of Florida.

The second woman, whom Newsweek is naming as Mary Doe, was allegedly wooed to Romania by Tate under the belief she was in "a romantic relationship" with him.

Now, the Tates are suing her for defamation and claiming she "somehow caused their imprisonment," which caused them "emotional damages," according to Mary's attorney, Jill Roth.

"She was very young and fell in love with him by meeting him online and having a lot of really deep, emotional, spiritual conversations," Roth told Newsweek in an exclusive interview.

According to Roth, that all turned out to be a lie. She said the Romanian-Moldovan national was convinced to move from her home in the U.K. to be with Tate.

"So now we find ourselves having to defend a woman who is a human trafficking and sexual assault victim because her perpetrators accusing her for being the reason he was ever in jail," Roth said.

She added that Tate and his legal team must have done "logistical gymnastics" to come up with the reasoning for the lawsuit, especially to file it in Palm Beach, Florida.

Roth said they filed in Florida because Jane called her parents to tell them about what was happening to her on the phone from Romania.

"So their argument, which I disagree with, is that the cause of the harm and the action that caused them harm happened in Florida and the United States."

Roth added: "It feels almost silly to say it out loud. It's wild. It strains the imagination of the audacity of anyone taking this type of action against someone who they have perpetrated sexual crimes against."

But the Tate brothers defended their decision to pursue legal action in a statement to Newsweek.

"The U.S. constitution grants the right of every individual to seek justice in a court of law. The brothers are simply pursuing their constitutional right. The recent Eleanor Williams case in the U.K. is a relevant precedent that explains why such legal actions are sometimes necessary," a spokesperson for the brothers said.

Williams was 22 when she was convicted in January for perverting the course of justice after claiming she had been groomed and trafficked by an Asian gang, and for accusing other men of rape. She had posted photos of herself looking bruised to Facebook in 2020 where she fabricated the allegations, which sparked a worldwide solidarity campaign called "Justice for Ellie."

The judge in the English court sentenced Williams to eight and a half years in jail, saying her actions posed "a risk that genuine victims will be reluctant as a result of this to come forward," per The Guardian.

However, research has found that false allegations of sexual assault and rape are very low, and may even be inflated due to fallacies within the police procedures and the legal process.

"Research shows that rates of false reporting are frequently inflated, in part because of inconsistent definitions and protocols, or a weak understanding of sexual assault," according to one study by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.

"Misconceptions about false reporting rates have direct, negative consequences and can contribute to why many victims don't report sexual assaults."

Roth describes Mary as a strong young woman who would stand firm in the face of the lawsuit and recovery from the alleged abuse at the hands of Tate but can't deny the ordeal has "taken a toll on her life."

According to Roth, an unredacted copy version of Tate's Romanian criminal indictment leaked online which revealed her identity and led to months of doxxing and threats. One person found all of her family's addresses and threatened to go to their homes and send them inappropriate photos of her.

Another allegedly copied all of her LinkedIn contacts and warned her to redact her statement against Tate otherwise he would email her professional contacts with "lies and terrible accusations." Mary even had to take time away from work after someone learned the address and threatened to come down to hurt her.

"Imagine being a young professional out of school starting out in your career. It's hard enough as it is... but now you're having someone that you don't know from somewhere else in the world, contacting people that you work with and telling them the most vile lies about you," Roth says.

Roth also suggests Tate filed the lawsuit as a means to intimidate Mary or at least embarrass her publicly.

"What they're really doing is saying, if you keep speaking out about me, I'm going to make you pay," she explains.

"Also one of the intentions is really an opportunity to air everything out in a public document. Anything that they want about to say about their victim they can now do legally... you can put anything you want on a piece of paper and upload it to the docket as long as you pay the couple $100 fee to do that in United States, and it becomes public."

In fact, two out of every three sexual assaults in the U.S. are not reported to police, with one of the major reason given as the fear of retaliation, according to anti-sexual violence organization RAINN.

Roth and her team, including lawyers from the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, are working to have the lawsuit dismissed.

Tate was a professional mixed martial artist before he joined the reality series Big Brother U.K. in 2016, gaining notoriety for his misogynistic comments. A series of tweets also emerged while he was in the Big Brother house that included racist and homophobic comments.

He was eventually removed from the house because of what he claimed was a video leaked showed him whipping a woman with a belt in what appeared to be a sex act. Tate said the act was consensual.

But the production company that made Big Brother told Newsweek that it learned while the show was running that Tate was the subject of a police investigation.

"Extensive background checks are made on all potential housemates including criminal record checks and self-declaration of any criminal matters. Given that no charges had been made against Andrew Tate at the time, the criminal record checks available to us were clear," a spokesperson Banijay UK told Newsweek. Banijay purchased Endemol, which previously produced Big Brother in 2020.

"However as soon as we were made aware by Hertfordshire Police on 8th June 2016 that Andrew Tate was being investigated by the police, we began a process of extensive consultation with Channel 5, and legal teams, including the lawyers representing Andrew Tate.

"During this period, and whilst we sought to clarify the detail required by Channel 5, Andrew was closely monitored at all times. He was removed from the house on 13th June."

In 2013, an unnamed woman accused Tate of rape in the U.K, but police never charged him with a crime. Two other women reportedly accused Tate of similar treatment but prosecutors decided in 2019 not to pursue charges.

Following his arrest in Romania, where he awaiting trial, four women in the U.K. filed a civil suit against him and accused him of multiple crimes against them between 2013 and 2016, including rape, physical violence and coercive control. He has also denied these claims.

Describing himself as the "king of toxic masculinity," Tate was temporarily barred from a number of social media platforms including Twitter and Instagram due to his derogatory remarks about women and LGBTQ people, and domestic violence organizations accused Tate of radicalizing boys and men.

Tate offered courses in cryptocurrency and also for men to teach them how to lead an "ultra-masculine, ultra-luxurious lifestyle."

Before his arrest in Romania, he split his time between Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and his "Hustler's University" compound in Bucharest.

Specialists from the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN) sexual assault hotline are available 24/7 via phone (1 (800) 656-4673) and online chat. Additional support from the group is also accessible via the mobile app.

Update 12/15/23, 10:42 a.m.: This story was updated to include comment from Banijay U.K.

Uncommon Knowledge

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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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