A British judge on Tuesday paused a civil trial in which four women had accused the online influencer Andrew Tate of abuse, a month after the police in Britain said they were reinvestigating criminal accusations against Mr. Tate by three of the women.
The trial, which had been set to begin in June in Britain’s High Court, was expected to be a closely scrutinized legal confrontation between Mr. Tate, the influencer known for his misogynistic views, and several women who had accused Mr. Tate of abusing them.
The civil suit is among several legal entanglements involving Mr. Tate and his brother, Tristan Tate, but it was set to be one of the first cases against one of the brothers to proceed to trial. The Tates were prohibited from leaving Romania for two years as prosecutors there investigated them, but the travel restrictions were lifted in February 2025.
The trial postponed on Tuesday involves four women who have accused Mr. Tate of choking them between 2013 and 2015, two of whom also said Mr. Tate had raped them. Mr. Tate, in court filings and through lawyers, has strongly denied the allegations and said that any intercourse was consensual.
Three of the women reported their allegations to the police in 2014 and 2015, but prosecutors declined to bring charges. A fourth woman later came forward with allegations of abuse, and the group sued Mr. Tate in 2024 in the British civil court alleging assault, battery and infliction of intentional harm.
But in March, Hertfordshire Constabulary said it was reinvestigating the accusations brought by the three women after a police watchdog raised concerns about three officers in the case, including one the watchdog said had failed to properly investigate.
After the new investigation was announced, Mr. Tate’s lawyers applied for a stay in the civil trial. At the hearing in London on Tuesday, his lawyers cited delays in receiving relevant material from the police and concerns that the civil trial could prejudice any potential subsequent proceedings.
The reinvestigation is expected to be substantial, according to court filings citing a detective superintendent in the case. The police have told the court that it could take up to a year to review the evidence, which includes data from 10 devices and more than half a million records of messages and chat logs.
No new date has yet been set for the civil trial, but Justice Christina Lambert, the presiding judge, said she was “not attracted” to the idea of waiting for the outcome of a potential criminal trial, which could take years.
A lawyer for the four women, Anne Studd, said they had agreed to adjourn the trial, but asked for a trial date to be set for next year, citing concerns that Mr. Tate was seeking to “evade accountability” by delaying the proceedings.
Mr. Tate, 39, was in the United States on Tuesday, according to his lawyers, and was expected to return to Romania soon. Andrew Ford, a lawyer for Mr. Tate, said his team endorsed the judge’s decision to delay the civil trial.
In addition to the civil case, the British authorities have charged Mr. Tate and his brother in a separate criminal case on counts of rape, human trafficking and assault relating to three different women.
In Romania, prosecutors have accused the brothers of trafficking more than 30 women, including a 17-year-old, into their pornography operation. Florida’s attorney general opened a criminal case against the brothers last year, and anti-trafficking agents at the Department of Homeland Security have been investigating the Tates, according to people familiar with the confidential investigation.
In the United States, a New York Times investigation found, they have been under investigation by Homeland Security anti-trafficking agents and federal prosecutors since 2023.
The brothers have repeatedly denied all the civil and criminal accusations against them, and have sued some of their accusers alleging defamation.
