Judge moves Andrew Tate's sexual violence trial forward
Andrew Tate is a former kickboxer and reality TV show contestant. (EPA Images pic)
LONDON : Self-avowed misogynist influencer Andrew Tate who is being sued by four women in a UK court over claims of sexual violence today had his trial brought forward.
The civil case had been listed for trial in February 2027 but a judge at London's High Court said she was 'very keen to get on' with the case and fixed the trial start date for June 22, 2026.
'We just need to make this happen, really,' High Court judge Christina Lambert said.
'It is not in anyone's interests that this case goes into the long grass of 2027,' she added.
Tate, 38, a former kickboxer and reality TV show contestant, moved to Romania years ago after first starting a webcam business in Britain.
He became famous in 2016 when he appeared on the 'Big Brother' UK reality television show, but was removed after a controversial video emerged.
He then turned to social media platforms to promote his often misogynistic and divisive views on how to be successful.
In court documents, one woman claimed Tate 'would strangle her or grab her by her throat if she spoke back to him or said anything that he did not like'.
The documents also alleged that Tate 'had weapons, including firearms, which were often pointed at her' and that he had 'indicated to her that he would like to kill someone if he could'.
A lawyer for Tate previously told the court there was a 'total denial of wrongdoing' by his client.
After the hearing, the four claimants welcomed the judge's decision.
'We've already spent years waiting for justice, and so it's of some comfort to hear that Andrew Tate will face these allegations in a court earlier than the original plan of 2027,' they said in a statement.
A spokesman for Tate previously said: 'He denies ever threatening anyone with a firearm, engaging in non-consensual acts or subjecting any individual to physical or psychological harm.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Malay Mail
6 hours ago
- Malay Mail
Fresh anger in Kolkata as law student gang-raped, just half-a-year after doctor's rapist get life sentence
NEW DELHI, June 28 — Indian police have arrested three men accused of gang raping a law student in Kolkata, officials said yesterday, a case that has reignited anger in a city still scarred by the rape and murder of a doctor last year. The survivor said she was assaulted on Wednesday evening inside a room on the college premises, Indian media reported, with the three accused including two current and one former student. The All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), the ruling party in West Bengal state, said the 'full weight of the law will be brought to bear'. The case again highlights the chronic issue of sexual violence in the world's most populous country, where an average of nearly 90 rapes a day were reported in 2022. It has also sparked fresh political clashes between the AITC and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP accused the AITC-led state government of failing to protect women. West Bengal had become a 'breeding ground for crimes against women', the BJP said in a statement. 'State machinery continues to fail its daughters'. The AITC rejected the accusations. The assault comes after a Kolkata court in January sentenced the rapist and murderer of a 31-year-old doctor to life in prison. Her killing in August 2024 at a state-run hospital in Kolkata triggered protests, with candlelight marches and nationwide outrage over the continuing violence against women. The brutality of that attack drew comparisons to the 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a bus in New Delhi, a crime that shocked the country and led to widespread demonstrations. — AFP
Malay Mail
7 hours ago
- Malay Mail
‘Not a god': Arguments end in Combs trial ahead of deliberations
NEW YORK, June 28 — Sean 'Diddy' Combs's lawyer aimed yesterday to skewer the credibility of the music mogul's accusers, saying in closing arguments they were out for money while rejecting any notion he led a criminal ring. But in their rebuttal—the trial's final stage before jurors are tasked with deciding the verdict—prosecutors tore into the defense, saying Combs's team had 'contorted the facts endlessly.' Prosecutor Maurene Comey told jurors that by the time Combs—once among the most powerful people in music—had committed his clearest-cut offenses, 'he was so far past the line he couldn't even see it.' 'In his mind he was untouchable,' she told the court. 'The defendant never thought that the women he abused would have the courage to speak out loud what he had done to them.' 'That ends in this courtroom,' she said. 'The defendant is not a god.' For most of Friday's hearing defense attorney Marc Agnifilo picked apart, and even made light of, the testimony of women who were in long-term relationships with Combs, and who said he had coerced them into drug-fueled sex parties with paid escorts. Agnifilo scoffed at the picture painted by prosecutors of a violent, domineering man who used his employees, wealth and power to foster 'a climate of fear' that allowed him to act with impunity. Combs, 55, is a 'self-made, successful Black entrepreneur' who had romantic relationships that were 'complicated' but consensual, Agnifilo said. In his freewheeling, nearly four-hour-long argument, Agnifilo aimed to confuse the methodic narrative US attorney Christy Slavik provided one day prior. She had spent nearly five hours meticulously walking the jury through the charges and their legal basis, summarizing thousands of phone, financial, travel and audiovisual records along with nearly seven weeks of testimony from 34 witnesses. Central to their case is the claim that Combs led a criminal enterprise of senior employees—including his chief-of-staff and security guards—who 'existed to serve his needs.' But Agnifilo underscored that none of those individuals testified against Combs, nor were they named as co-conspirators. 'This is supposed to be simple,' the defense counsel told jurors. 'If you find that you're in the weeds of this great complexity, maybe it's because it just isn't there.' If convicted, Combs faces upwards of life in prison. 'Brazen' Casandra Ventura and a woman who testified under the pseudonym Jane described abuse, threats and coercive sex in excruciating detail. Combs's defense has conceded that domestic violence was a feature of the artist's relationships, but that his outbursts did not amount to sex trafficking. The defense insisted the women were consenting adults. Prosecutor Comey snapped back that they were being 'manipulated' into 'brazen' acts of sex trafficking, reiterating once again for jurors what the government says are the clearest-cut examples. Agnifilo pointed to Ventura's civil lawsuit against Combs in which she was granted US$20 million: 'If you had to pick a winner in this whole thing, it would be Cassie,' he said. Comey called that notion insulting: 'What was her prize? Black eyes? A gash in her head? Sex for days with a UTI?' The prosecutor also pointed to a violent episode between Combs and Jane, when she says she struck him in an argument before he brutally beat her, knocked her down in the shower, and then forced her into giving an escort oral sex. 'Jane may have started that fight, but he finished it with a vengeance,' Comey said, calling that incident the most obvious sex trafficking case and saying he had 'literally beaten her into submission.' Throughout the trial, jurors were shown voluminous phone records, including messages of affection and desire from both women—and Agnifilo emphasized the love and romance once again. Both prosecutors said taking those words literally, and in isolation, doesn't paint the whole picture. They also referenced testimony from a forensic psychologist who explained to jurors how victims become ensnared by abusers. 'The defense is throwing anything they can think of at the wall, hoping something will stick,' Comey said. On Monday, Judge Arun Subramanian will instruct jurors on how to apply the law to the evidence for their deliberations. Then, 12 New Yorkers will determine Combs's future. But Combs's legal worries may not end there, after three new sexual assault lawsuits were filed against him this week. One was by a woman who alleged the rapper's son, Justin, lured her from the southern state of Louisiana to Los Angeles where she was held captive, drugged and gang raped by three masked men in 2017. One of the men was allegedly Sean Combs. The other two cases were filed by men who accuse the rapper and his team of drugging and sexually assaulting them at parties in 2021 and 2023. — AFP
The Star
21 hours ago
- The Star
Amnesty says Cambodia is enabling brutal scam industry
Barbed wire fences are seen outside a shuttered Great Wall Park compound where Cambodian authorities said they had recovered evidence of human trafficking, kidnapping and torture during raids on suspected cybercrime compounds in the coastal city of Sihanoukville, Cambodia Sept 21, 2022. - Reuters file photo BANGKOK: Human rights group Amnesty International accused Cambodia's government on Thursday (June 26) of "deliberately ignoring" abuses by cybercrime gangs that have trafficked people from across the world, including children, into slavery at brutal scam compounds. The London-based group said in a report that it had identified 53 scam centres and dozens more suspected sites across the country, including the nation's capital, Phnom Penh. The prison-like compounds were ringed by high fences with razor wire, guarded by armed men and staffed by trafficking victims forced to defraud people across the globe, it said, with those inside subjected to punishments including shocks from electric batons, confinement in dark rooms, and beatings. Amnesty said its findings revealed a "pattern of state failures" that allowed the billion-dollar industry to flourish, including failures to investigate human rights abuses, identify and assist victims, and regulate security companies and tools of torture. Cambodian government spokesman Pen Bona said the country rejected allegations of inaction, pointing to a task force led by Prime Minister Hun Manet formed in January and saying the report was "exaggerated". He said Cambodia was one of the victims of the scam industry and wanted cooperation rather than blame. While Cambodia has overseen raids that have freed some trafficked workers, Amnesty said it found more than two-thirds of scam compounds were either not investigated by police or had continued to operate even after police interventions. Two compounds did appear to have been shut down, the group said. During rescue efforts, police did not enter compounds but met representatives who handed over only the victim who had called for help, the group said, while some survivors were beaten by their bosses after trying to contact the police. The government spokesman did not respond to those claims. "Deceived, trafficked and enslaved, the survivors of these scamming compounds describe being trapped in a living nightmare - enlisted in criminal enterprises that are operating with the apparent consent of the Cambodian government,' said Amnesty International's Secretary General Agnes Callamard. Cambodia emerged during the pandemic as a hub for the global scam industry as mostly Chinese-led criminal groups repurposed unused casinos and hotels as scam centres housing as many as 100,000 people, according to the United Nations. Similar enclaves have flourished in Myanmar and Laos. The industry in Cambodia now generates more than US$12.5 billion annually - half of the country's GDP, according to the United States Institute for Peace. Thailand and Cambodia have traded barbs over the scam issue in recent days as border tensions have heated up, with the Thai prime minister calling for a crackdown in Cambodia and another government official calling the country a hub for cybercrime. The criminal gangs entice trafficking victims with fake job offers posted on social media and then force them to financially exploit people online including through fake romances or "pig-butchering' schemes in which the scammer builds trust with a victim before stealing their money, Amnesty said. Nine out of 58 survivors interviewed by Amnesty were children, the group said, including a 16-year-old boy from China who was kicked and barred from leaving. Amnesty said it had confirmed the death of a Chinese child in one compound. An 18-year-old Thai survivor told Reuters he was trafficked to a compound in Phnom Penh in 2023 and then, when he tried to leave, sold to another compound close to the Vietnamese border. The man, who asked not to be named, was forced to use deepfake video software to pose as an older attractive man to lure Thai women into handing over their money. After almost a year, he threw himself out of a window, injuring himself, and escaped after hiding in a hospital. - Reuters
