Young woman who was raped three times on a Tinder date with a 'buff' firefighter reveals the app refused to ban the predator's account until multiple other victims came forward
A young Australian woman who was raped three times in one morning by a man she met on Tinder has spoken of how it took several women complaining of his predatory behaviour for his account to banned.
Emily said she had second thoughts about the man - who had a photo showing him posing for a racy firefighters calendar - after he asked her to send him explicit photos of herself.
But after the 'incredibly buff' Tinder match reassured her, she agreed to go to his home where he raped her so forcefully she bled for days after the attack.
'It wasn't something that I wanted. It wasn't something that I said he could do. He just started to rape me,' she told a Four Corners investigation into Tinder that will air on the ABC on Monday night.
Emily said halfway through the horrific attack her rapist held her down so he could take photos of her.
'He kept his hand holding me down as I tried to squirm and get out of the camera lens,' she said.
Emily later tried to report the man to Tinder, but was just given an automated response saying: 'Thanks for submitting'.
She said Tinder took action to delete his account only after she messaged other women he met on the app and had harassed over text message.
The firefighter had asked some of the women to send them naked photos of themselves on the app, responding 'f**k off then mutt' when they declined.
Another woman named Brooke told the joint Triple j Hack and Four Corners investigation she was raped on a car backseat in secluded bushland on her third date with a man she met on Tinder.
When she went to report the attack, she said she couldn't find any of their chat history because he had unmatched her.
'It was completely heart-wrenching because there was no proof that we had even spoke to each other,' she said.
Young Australian woman Emily was horrifically raped three times over the course of a Tinder date with a firefighter she met on the app
Five former employees of Match Group, which operates Tinder, told the investigation they were too under-resourced to deal with the deluge of sexual assault complaints they received.
Match Group told the ABC they were 'outraged singles anywhere may experience fear, discomfort, or worse when looking to meet someone special'.
Her rapist had sent harassing messages to other women he met on the dating app
'We will always work to improve our systems to make sure everyone on our apps feels respected and safe,' the company said in a statement.
Tinder told Daily Mail Australia they have been rolling out improvements to their app to enhance user safety - including a 'photo verification' feature to ensure users are who they say they are.
In May 2019, New Zealander Glenn Antony Dylan Hartland was sentenced to 14 years and nine months in jail over three shocking rapes of women he met on the app.
Hartland raped three women in their homes between 2014 and 2016 after they told him they no longer wanted to see him and indecently assaulted a fourth woman by ripping off her underwear after he followed her into a toilet cubicle at a Melbourne pub when she told him she wanted to go home.
In May 2019, New Zealander Glenn Antony Dylan Hartland was sentenced to 14 years and nine months in jail over three shocking rapes on women he met on the app
The attacks occurred in the Melbourne suburbs of South Yarra, Elwood, St Kilda and Prahran.
After one 2014 rape, the court heard Hartland told the woman: 'You can call that the Monica Lewinsky dress.'
A judge described Hartland as being self-obsessed, with a 'bleak misogyny' that was driven by a personality disorder, which saw him use Tinder to lure women into his clutches.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
NSW Domestic Violence Line (1800 65 64 63)