Moment Andrew Tate involved in a bizarre stand-off with a journalist over a box of chocolates in a documentary investigating his misogynistic online community

A documentary exploring the dark world of Andrew Tate’s online community shows a bizarre confrontation between the filmmaker and the controversial influencer over a box of chocolates.

Matt Shea, an investigative journalist, fronts the BBC Three Documentary Andrew Tate: The Man Who Groomed the World? which airs tonight at 9pm and lands on iPlayer at 6am, delving into War Room, Tate’s paying membership group.

While Tate, who is under house arrest in Romania awaiting trial for human trafficking and sexual assault, insists the community promotes positive masculinity, Shea’s investigation reveals dark details about the forum’s discussions.

In a bizarre scene, Shea travels to Tate’s compound in Bucharest, Romania, to interview the misogynist influencer about the allegations he’s facing – but is denied entry when he refuses to hand over a box of chocolates that Tate requested prior to the interview . .

As Shea says he’ll give Tate the box of chocolates as soon as he sees it, one of Tate’s employees replies that the influencer won’t leave his house unless Shea gives him the chocolates first – and as the journalist’s investigation deepens, he discovers strange chocolate game is one of Tate’s favorite methods of gaining control over people.

Luton-born Tate, described as the “king of toxic masculinity,” and his brother Tristan were arrested and taken into custody in Bucharest on Dec. 29. After an appeal in March, the two were allowed to return to their compound, where they have been under house arrest ever since.

In June, Romania’s Anti-Organized Crime Agency, known as DIICOT, asked the judges to extend the house arrest measure after it launched its investigation.

DIICOT alleges that in 2021 Tate, his brother Tristan and two Romanian women – Luana Radu and Georgiana Naghel – formed a criminal group “to commit the crime of human trafficking” in Romania as well as in the United States and Great Britain. They deny all charges against them.

There are seven female victims in the case, DIICOT said, who were lured under false pretenses of love and transported to Romania, where the gang sexually exploited them and subjected them to physical violence.

As part of Shea’s research, he delves into one of Tate’s money-making programs, the War Room, which charges $8,000 in membership fees each year and offers courses on how to make money, as well as participating in an encrypted Telegram chat with other members. .

One of the courses offered in the War Room is the ‘PHD’ – which stands for ‘Pimp H**s Degree’. The course coaches men on how to seduce women into sex work through webcam models after tricking them into believing they are in a loving relationship.

Posts from the War Room forums handed to Shea by another researcher, who goes by the name of CrabCrawler, show how Tate’s staff appear to be pushing the “PHD” course to members.

According to reports, one member, claiming to make a lot of money from the scheme, brags about forcing a woman to work for him by assaulting her.

The member, named Joe Lampton, says: ‘I grabbed her keyboard and hit her on the head. She went into the room and worked for 7 hours. Without any pause. Sleeping in the garage with concrete floor without air conditioning, spiders and ‘cockroaches’.

After reading the messages and learning of the charges against Tate, Shea tries to get an interview with the notorious influencer and calls him to meet in person.

In a bizarre conversation, Tate, who can be heard over the loudspeaker, talks about being able to “choose which reporters become relevant…because I’m the most relevant person on the planet and I get to do the act of charity by sitting next to someone.” . ‘.

Tate then asks Shea to bring him a box of chocolates – after which he will consider an interview.

In a later scene, Shea and his film crew arrive in Bucharest at the Tate property after traveling from London, but as the gate to the property opens, the team is confronted by one of Tate’s staff – who is filming the exchange with a phone.

The man asks Shea if he brought the box of chocolates Tate asked for, to which he replies yes, but will not present them until he sees Tate.

The man then explains that Tate wants to receive the chocolates in the comfort of his home before coming out to meet Shea.

At this point the journalist says, “This is getting pretty weird… you have to realize how weird this looks.”

Meanwhile, Tate, watching Shea outside the gate on CCTV broadcasting himself on a streaming service, laughs with his brother Tristan and labels Shea a “nerd.”

Stunned at the exchange, Shea expresses bewilderment at what he describes as Tate’s “power move” – ​​but the chocolate trick becomes more apparent later in the documentary.

Shea travels to the US and Buenos Aires, Argentina, to meet two women who claim they have been groomed by members of Tate’s War Room to become cam girls.

Both women describe nearly identical behavior patterns of the men they claim won their affection before convincing them to become cam girls – and then gradually become increasingly controlling and violent.

They all described meeting men on Tinder when they were young girls, no older than 21. They both claimed to be lured into bed and showered with affection, before the older men they were dating got the idea of put forward webcam modeling to make money.

Amanda, based in the US, and Maria, based in Argentina (both speaking under aliases), claim they were unsure about the idea at first, before their respective partners convinced them.

In any case, however, the men’s behavior became increasingly controlling and aggressive as time went on.

Amanda recalls, “It felt like I had no control over my life,” adding that she felt powerless to leave.

After making tens of thousands of dollars from webcamming, she revealed that she gave away 80 percent of her earnings, which amounts to about $95,000, to the man who was checking on her.

In one particularly disturbing memory, she claimed, “There was one night I went there and as soon as I walked through the door he pushed me to my knees and hit me really hard in the face.”

Meanwhile, Maria also claimed that her partner was controlling the behavior, saying he would force her to wake up at 6am if he woke up so she could make him coffee. Once this task was completed, he put her back to sleep.

In both cases, early in their interactions with the War Room members, the women remembered a chilling, identical detail: each man asked them to bring a box of chocolates on the first date.

In Tate’s PHD tutorials, he teaches men to bring up the idea of ​​chocolates early in the relationship, as a test to see how susceptible women are to being controlled.

Earlier this month, hundreds of pages of reported testimony and evidence came to light in which several women describe how they were allegedly verbally and physically abused by Tate and his brother Tristan while being forced to create pornographic content online.

A spokesperson for the brothers told MailOnline that they “vehemently” denied the allegations against them.