Women on Andrew Tate’s sex cams were tattooed ‘owned by Tate’

Police investigating Andrew Tate’s online sex business in Romania allege young women were tattooed and forced to perform for online sex cameras.

Andrew Tate is said to have dated Georgiana Naghel, centre. She and Luana Radu, right, are both in custody. Picture: AFP for The Times

Young women working at Andrew Tate’s online sex business in Romania were allegedly tattooed with the words “owned by Tate”.

The social media influencer moved to Romania while being investigated in Britain for an alleged rape and throttling, it was reported on Thursday.

Romanian police have said Tate charmed the women before forcing them to perform for online sex cameras.

Andrew Tate was expelled from the Big Brother show amid allegations of abuse at his online sex business. Picture: The Times

The investigation began after a 22-year-old American woman said she was held against her will in April last year. Police sources said she and other women working for him were tattooed with “owned by Tate”.

Sebastian Vieru, Tate’s partner in other businesses, dismissed allegations that the women had been forced to work.

“When you have 100 girls of your own, you do not have to force any woman to do anything,” he said.

Vieru said he believed Tate had wound up his sex trade but insisted it had been a “perfectly legal business” in Romania. He added that it was normal for women to have tattoos of their boyfriends’ names.

Tate, 36, a contestant on Channel 5’s Big Brother show in 2016, denies wrongdoing.

It has emerged that he was expelled from the show when police told producers they were investigating allegations of abuse at his online sex business in Luton, Bedfordshire.

One of the alleged British victims told Vice World News, an online channel, that Tate had throttled her at least five times. She also claimed to have watched Tate rape her friend.

The woman, who was 20 at the time, said Tate was “really charming” at first, but she was paid £15 ($26) an hour to work in a dingy flat.

“As soon as he handed me my money, I forgot about him hitting me,” she said. “It just got worse. He got more verbally abusive, more physical.”

Police took four years to pass their investigation to the Crown Prosecution Service, which declined to authorise charges.

Tate, pictured, and his brother Tristan, 34, were arrested during a raid on the compound last week. Picture: Observator Antena/AP/The Times

The alleged victim said: “I have been frustrated by the British police and court system. They could have stopped him from doing the same abuse to these women in Romania.”

The Big Brother producers let Tate stay on the show for five days after being told of the claims. Banijay UK, which owns Endemol Shine, the production company, said Tate was “closely monitored” before being removed.

Hertfordshire police said: “We acknowledge that there were some delays to the investigation. This was addressed at the time and apologies were made.”

The Crown Prosecution Service said: “We carefully reviewed all the evidence provided by the police … and concluded it did not meet our legal test.”

Tate said through his lawyer: “They [the alleged victims] wanted money because I fired them.

The police understood after the investigation that I am innocent and the police found messages from the girls’ phones where they were … planning to lie about me.”

Tate was arrested in Bucharest last week along with his brother Tristan, 34, his girlfriend Georgiana Naghel, 28, and Luana Radu, 32, a Romanian former policewoman.

A Romanian judge ruled last week that Tate should spend 30 days in police detention while the inquiry continued into allegations of organised crime, human trafficking and sexually exploiting women.

In a ruling released on Thursday, the judge said the prosecution case showed there was an “attitude of disregard towards women in general, which he only perceives as a means of obtaining large profits in an easy way”.

The Times