{"id":597368,"date":"2026-05-22T04:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T04:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/597368\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T04:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T04:08:08","slug":"second-channel-4-dating-show-hit-by-abuse-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/597368\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Channel 4 dating show hit by abuse claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

A contestant cleared to appear on a Channel 4<\/a> dating show had assaulted an ex-girlfriend and allegedly abused a second, it has been claimed.<\/p>\n

The 41-year-old man admitted assault at a magistrates court in late 2020, The Sun reported.<\/p>\n

He was given a one-year community order, a two-year restraining order and was told to pay \u00a3225 over the offence in West Sussex, the newspaper said.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Channel 4 pulled all episodes of Married at First Sight UK after two women claimed they were raped by their on-screen husbands<\/a> during filming.<\/p>\n

The mother of the woman who he was convicted of assaulting criticised the producers of First Dates for clearing the contestant to appear on national television.<\/p>\n

She told The Sun: \u201cI cannot tell you how damaging this man has been to her life physically, but also the impact to her long-term mental health has been catastrophic.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was so brave to take him on and she did so hoping he would be punished and other women would not have to suffer as she has done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mother said she had been shocked to see the man promoted as an \u201cideal potential partner\u201d in a recent First Dates show.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cThere obviously cannot have been any due diligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Channel 4 said the show completes the \u201chighest level of checks\u201d that it is legally allowed to undertake, including a DBS check.<\/p>\n

\u2018What I experienced has left lasting trauma\u2019<\/p>\n

Another ex-girlfriend of the contestant also came forward to question the vetting process for the show.<\/p>\n

She told the newspaper: \u201cWhat I experienced has left lasting trauma that I carry with me every single day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe impact has affected every part of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The woman claimed to have \u201ccompletely spiralled\u201d after seeing him appear on TV, adding: \u201cChannel 4 should be held accountable for presenting, for entertainment, a man with a known history of violence against women as a safe and trustworthy partner.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Channel 4 spokesperson said: \u201cContributor care is our highest priority. All First Dates contributors are subject to the highest level of checks we are legally able to undertake, which include a DBS and detailed online checks.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll checks for this individual, including the DBS, were clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Melanie Dawes, the chief executive of Ofcom, said the allegations of rape and sexual assault made by contestants on Married at First Sight raised \u201creally serious concerns\u201d.<\/p>\n

A third woman has since come forward to claim she had an abortion following a non-consensual sex act<\/a> by her partner on the show.<\/p>\n

She said the regulator would \u201ctighten its guidance around reality shows if necessary\u201d.<\/p>\n

Channel 4 bosses continued to broadcast the episodes despite being aware of some of the allegations, and all episodes featuring the women had previously been available on its streaming service, according to a BBC Panorama<\/a> investigation.<\/p>\n

Priya Dogra, the broadcaster\u2019s chief executive, said she had commissioned an external review of contributor welfare on Married at First Site last month, which had yet to report back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A contestant cleared to appear on a Channel 4 dating show had assaulted an ex-girlfriend and allegedly abused…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[1633,96,50,6277,5438,391,56,225,54,55],"class_list":["post-597368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-channel-4","tag-entertainment","tag-news","tag-sexual-assault","tag-standard","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-uk-news","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}