The so-called “king of toxic masculinity” sits in a Romanian jail with his brother, detained for thirty days, accused of human trafficking and rape. The crimes Andrew Tate and his accomplices are said to have committed are heinous indeed.
According to the authorities, the suspects recruited their
“victims … by misrepresenting their intention to enter into a marriage/cohabitation relationship and the existence of genuine feelings of love (the loverboy method). They were later transported and housed in buildings in Ilfov county where, by exercising acts of physical violence and mental coercion (through intimidation, constant surveillance, control and invoking alleged debts), they were sexually exploited by group members by forcing them [into performing in pornography]. …
With regard to the crime of rape, it was noted that, in March 2022, an injured person was forced, on two different occasions, by a suspect through the exercise of physical violence and psychological pressure to have sexual relations.”
So far, six alleged victims have been identified; there may, of course, be more.
Naturally, he has his defenders, who are out in force today on Twitter and elsewhere—and they aren’t all his wide-eyed teenage fanboys. Conspiracy theorists of various types, some quite prominent in the far-right political milieu, have seized upon the arrest as an example of what happens when someone speaks up against the “globalist elite.” Some of those pooh-poohing the trafficking charges against Tate are the very same people who profess to be concerned about leftist “groomers” and pedophile rings.
