A Romanian court has ruled that two young ladies who claimed not to have been trafficked by Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan were brainwashed and hence did not realize they were slaves.
According to a professional psychologist’s report, the two women were both traumatized and failed to recognize that they were being exploited despite the fact that they both claimed to have worked for Andrew and Tristan Tate voluntarily.
In December, Andrew Tate, 36, and his brother Tristan, 34, were detained on suspicion of rape, human trafficking, and forming a gang to take advantage of women.
The brothers and their alleged female accomplices—aside from the two mentioned in the clinical psychologist’s report—appeared in court in Bucharest yesterday, where they lost their appeal against the judge’s decision to extend their detention a second time.
Although the clinical psychologist’s evaluation was labelled as extrajudicial evidence, justices at the Bucharest Court of Appeal did consider the report when making their verdict yesterday.
According to testimony given in court, one of the two women is from the US and was drawn to Romania by Tristan Tate.
Despite the two women’s assertions that they worked for the Tate brothers voluntarily, the Romanian prosecutors saw them as victims of the two men.
The magistrates decided that they did not talk knowingly and had been indoctrinated through their exploitation after considering the clinical psychologist’s report.
The brothers’ recruitment strategy, according to the court, was convincing their alleged victims to “fall in love” with them by making false claims that they desired a romantic connection or marriage.
The Romanian court ruled: “Although the named [woman one] and [woman two], both in the statements given before the criminal investigation bodies, as witnesses and through the authenticated statements given before the notary and submitted by the defence to the case file, denied any form of exploitation on the part of the four defendants, the collegial panel of rights and freedoms appreciates that these statements do not reflect reality.
“It is known that, in the case of the ‘lover boy’ or ‘by falling in love’ recruitment method, the victims of human trafficking do not always recognize the fact that they were enslaved and exploited and do not cooperate with the judicial bodies, attesting to the idea that these activities were carried out voluntarily.”
The Tate brothers, as well as their accused cohorts Launa Radu and Georgiana Naghel, continue to reject any accusations of misconduct.
“Ask them for evidence and they will give you none because it doesn’t exist,” Tate shouted as he was led from the court into a police van. “You will find out the truth of this case soon.”
The four will now be held in custody until February 27 as a result of the court’s judgment from yesterday.