Judge Delays Andrew Tate Civil Trial as Police Reopen Inquiry

A High Court judge has delayed Andrew Tate’s civil trial after Hertfordshire Constabulary said it would reopen a criminal investigation into the same allegations, pushing a case that had been advanced to June 22, 2026 back into uncertainty.

Mrs Justice Lambert paused the trial, which had been moved up from an original listing in February 2027, after police moved to reexamine allegations reported by four women in London. The women are suing Tate over claims of rape, sexual assault, sexual violence and coercive control said to have taken place between 2013 and 2015. The judge said the litigation should not continue until there was an update on the reinvestigation.

The procedural twist matters because the civil claims and the criminal inquiry now overlap again after years of stop-start scrutiny. Three of the women first reported the allegations to Hertfordshire Constabulary in 2014 and 2015. Police investigated for four years before closing the case in 2019. The Crown Prosecution Service later said in September 2025 that the legal test for criminal charges had not been met after a further review. But on March 26, 2026, Hertfordshire Constabulary said it would reopen the investigation after the Independent Office for Police Conduct said it was examining the force’s handling of the earlier probe.

That renewed police work also raised the prospect of misconduct action against officers who handled the original inquiry. The IOPC said a former detective constable could face gross misconduct proceedings, while two former detective sergeants were also under investigation over alleged failures to properly examine the case. For the women, the reopening keeps alive the possibility of stronger criminal scrutiny after years in which they say police failed to investigate adequately.

Anne Studd KC, for the claimants, argued the trial date should have been kept because there was a real prospect the CPS would not charge Tate and the court could lose its slot. Tate’s representatives have categorically denied all the allegations and said he would continue to engage with any lawful process. The allegations in the civil case include claims that Tate grabbed one woman by the throat on several occasions in 2015, assaulted her with a belt and pointed a gun at her face. The delay now leaves the civil claims waiting on a criminal process that has already been closed once and is only just beginning again.