Skip to main content

tv   Disclosure  BBC News  October 13, 2019 8:30pm-9:00pm BST

8:30 pm
lawyer. hundreds are reported to have escaped from a camp in northern syria, holding family members of islamic state fighters — as an offensive by turkey against the kurds continues. boris johnson tells his cabinet a brexit deal is on the horizon, but a statement from european commission says a lot of work remains to be done. and now on bbc news, game is a multi—million pound global industry selling men pick—up techniques to get women from the street into bed as quickly as possible. myles bonnar goes undercover at a seduction "bootcamp". it's completely not harmless. i spent the whole night kind of terrified. tonight on disclosure, the pickup artists who harass women on the streets... the reason you're doing it is to get laid. only the brave get laid. ..and post footage they secretly film online. i eventually got her back to my place and i had sex with her. i go undercover and find teenagers being approached by older men.
8:31 pm
i'm given advice that blurs the lines of consent. i meet women who have been harassed... knowing how he manipulated me does make me incredibly angry. ..and confront men who are teaching these tactics. it's completely consensual. if anything, we prevent rape culture. lifting the lid on the seduction game. there's nothing new about men trying to chat up women. in this online age, getting together with someone in real life can be challenging. there is a business that claims to offer a formula for success.
8:32 pm
this is addy a—game. two cozies so far. real name adnan ahmed. he's selling what he says are the secrets to picking up women. the reason you're doing it is to get laid. only the brave get laid. he leads a group of men based in glasgow who call themselves pickup artists. they teach techniques such as the so—called "cold approach" — stopping women in the street to get as many phone numbers as possible. men like ahmed secretly film much of what they do and upload it onto their youtube channels. ijust bust a nut or two, in a random same—day lay. it was a lot of last—minute resistance i had to come through. eventually...
8:33 pm
he's talking about a woman he says he just slept with who he met that same day. adnan ahmed has posted more than 250 videos, many boasting about his sexual conquests. like this one. it's too graphic to broadcast in full. she was like, "no, no, no." consent doesn't seem to be a big concern. she was like, "why are you putting a condom on?" i was like, "i'm just putting a condom on." plausible deniability. they want you to take the lead. remember, this is not rape. listen to her actions, her body, not her words. in many of his videos, ahmed repeatedly approaches strangers in the street. in this one, he boasts of what he calls a same—night lay... ..including audio apparently recorded during sex, which we're not broadcasting.
8:34 pm
afterwards, he films a woman sleeping with an unused condom next to her. what ahmed is teaching is part of a growing global online business that the men involved call game. earlier this year, i revealed on the bbc what he'd been up to. there was a huge response. i'm sure everybody in the chamber would, like me, have been shocked and appalled by the bbc‘s investigation into so—called gaming. within days, women were posting their experiences online. this one was written by beth. i'd just come out from work at half seven, eight o'clock at night and it was november so it was really quite dark outside. he approached me just from the side and he started making really crude comments at me and stuff, like, really early on in the conversation.
8:35 pm
what sort of things? he was mentioning when he was in ukraine or something, he had hired prostitutes, and he was saying that i'd be, like, better than prostitutes. and, like, just a horrible manner and was just, like, quite touchy with me. 0k. yeah. so what did you do then? just not engage with him. i kind ofjust have to, like, keep him on a level where he's not going to get aggressive with me. i've not asked you — how old were you at the time? i'm 17 — at the time of the incident i was 17 as well. and he told me he was 27, but he was actually 37 years old, so 20 years older than me. here, adnan ahmed stuffs a microphone in his pocket, ready to approach another young woman in central glasgow. someone else films the whole encounter. emily says she had no idea she was being filmed... just round about here. ..for the video that was later posted on his youtube channel.
8:36 pm
i did spend the first couple of minutes in that video kind of looking down at my phone and breaking eye contact. the ridiculous thing is, in that entire conversation i'm trying to figure out a way to let him down gently. we don't want to be called a bitch for rejecting someone, we don't want to be called rude for just closing the interaction down. made someone's day. he later posted in his video that he could easily have taken things further with emily. if i had met her on vacation, on holiday, it would have been a same—day lay. that...infuriates me. for him to so painfully misread that is...is frustrating. neither emily nor beth reported ahmed to the police. other women did. two days after my expose, he was arrested and charged with harassment. then i began investigating
8:37 pm
the online business he's part of. from america to australia, the seduction industry is said to be worth around £80 million. pickup coaches sell courses on how to sleep with as many women as possible as quickly as possible. rachel o'neill has studied the world of seduction coaches for over a decade. there's an idea that by filming interactions with women — on the street, but also up to and including on dates, in bed and so forth — this is something that trainers can actually use as a way of effectively branding themselves and marketing themselves to their students. it's very common and it's almost entirely unquestioned. i even asked men about this practice, and they were... ..very nonchalant about it.
8:38 pm
they didn't seem to think it was a big deal and they were quite curious as to why i was even asking, why would i even consider that a problem. looking online, there's no shortage of video tutorials. here's adnan ahmed being coached by another pickup artist who's based in london. i think that's why we do game. it's like when the opportunity presents itself, you can strike. he's talking to eddie hitchens — real name edib bajraktarevic. the date went really well, i eventually got her back to my place, and i had sex with her. eddie runs a company called street attraction. it has its own youtube channel featuring what they call in—field videos — covert recordings of eddie and other coaches with young women. eddie runs another website behind a paywall called approach 2 lay where he promises to reveal his seduction techniques all the way to the bedroom.
8:39 pm
hey, eddie hitchens here. i'll give you all the necessary theory, but for extra clarity it will all be backed up by intimate in—field footage. recording such intimate stuff in general isn't easy. if a girl knows that she's being filmed she obviously won't act in a natural way and almost certainly won't allow herself to be seduced for fear of her reputation being ruined. because we wanted to capture the real thing and real reactions, it had to be filmed covertly, guerrilla—style. street attraction has more than 100,000 youtube subscribers. they also sell weekend boot camps where their coaching techniques seem to be in demand. here we see adnan ahmed on one of their london boot camps. he's so, so persistent. ijust love that. the epicentre for pickup artists
8:40 pm
in the uk is london. i'm on oxford street, which is one of the prime spots for pickup artists, and you can telljust by looking around at how busy the place is why they pick it. i want to find out what really goes on during these boot camps, so i'm going undercover, shaving my beard and ditching my real name. i have a secret camera hidden in myjacket. so this is the jacket i'll be wearing. it's quilted. which is good, when it's the hottest day of the year. we meet in the centre of town. there are six students, from the recently single to the experienced pickup artist... ..each paying £600 to learn more about game.
8:41 pm
the students each hand over wads of cash. the first lesson — the cold approach. how to stop women you don't know in the street. soon it's my turn.
8:42 pm
i'm 31. i don't want to approach someone who looks half my age. the coaches seem less concerned. eddie hitchens is 34. all weekend, he and other coaches suggest approaching teenagers.
8:43 pm
another coach, richard hood — real name richard kaptar — is also teaching today. he's in his late 20s. so coaches can hear how we're getting on, they mic us up and our conversations with women are listened to and analysed.
8:44 pm
and now they're micing me up. all day long, we cold—approach young women, notjust on the streets... we're taught that clothes shops are an ideal hunting ground. here, one of the students wearing a hidden microphone is sent to stop a woman. richard and i eavesdrop on the conversation. this happens over and over again. there is an idea that seduction essentially provides a blueprint that men can follow as a way of interacting with women. so you'll be given a more or less scripted set of lines, routines that you can follow. most training camps now will
8:45 pm
spend the majority of their time out on the streets, in bars, cafes, museums — any public space, actually practising these techniques, putting them into action. and that means often unwillingly drawing women into these interactions. back in central london, it's day 2 of the boot camp. i'm told today we'll be taught how to convert a cold approach into sex. one of the biggest challenges, they say, is what they call "last—minute resistance to sex", or lmr. coach richard hood gave me his advice.
8:46 pm
richard tells us that men can be too preoccupied with consent. there's an idea with lmr that women put up a certain amount of supposedly token resistance prior to having sex, and this is something — again, under seduction logic — that women do as a way of trying to safeguard their reputation. and the thing that's really worrying about this is that it creates a situation in which a woman's no can never be legitimately heard as a no. richard hood thinks he knows every trick in the book. this video called picking up girls in slovakia was uploaded on youtube.
8:47 pm
he'd apparently secretly recorded himself having sex with a woman he'd just met. by the way, guys, she told me that she hasn't had sex for a year—and—a—half. basically girls who haven't had sex for a while are normally...are usually easier to seduce than girls who have sex on a regular basis. when we speak at the boot camp, richard brags that he's lied to get in a woman's flat, then again to get in her bed. richard's advice on overcoming last—minute resistance didn't stop there.
8:48 pm
street attraction use these types of recordings to sell residential courses in eastern europe. you should considerjoining me and richard on an epic residential training trip. their intensive coaching costs £80 an hour. in this video, they appear to film and listen in as a student cold—approaches a woman. again, the encounter is being filmed from a distance. thank you for being friendly to me. i saw you walking there and i thought you looked really nice. thank you. the student is wearing a microphone...
8:49 pm
oh. so interesting. ..and the recording continues all the way to the flat. 0nce they've gone inside, the recording continues — capturing audio of them apparently having sex. sandy brindley heads rape crisis scotland. she thinks these explicit in—field videos, that seem to secretly record women, could be breaking the law. i think there's real questions about legality, about criminal behaviour, about harassment, about using images — particularly intimate images or audio — without consent. if they haven't given consent, which i would have grave concerns about whether or not there is real consent, informed consent in place, to come across one of those videos and to hear some of that audio, and to have not given consent, i think is a massive infringement on somebody‘s human rights. 0n the approach 2 lay page, for a £47 fee, i found what eddie says is a secret recording of him picking up an 18—year—old...
8:50 pm
..from a cold approach on the street, taking her to a coffee shop, and finally to the bedroom — where eddie apparently secretly records the sound of them having sex. eddie goes on to describe his 14 ways to help men overcome so—called "last—minute resistance" to sex. this is number four. if she says that things are going a little bit too fast, you can reply with, "yeah, i know, babe. yeah, i know. "i understand. " the caption says, "then carry on escalating." i think some of these techniques come very, very close to the definition of rape and i think pickup artists are really doing men no favours at all, recommending these techniques. my advice would be that this is not the approach to take because you could end up facing very, very serious consequences. i have tried to get eddie and richard to give me an interview,
8:51 pm
without success. so i'm coming to speak to them at another of their london boot camps. hi, eddie. hey. hi, i'm myles bonnarfrom the bbc. do you remember me? yeah? well, i've a couple of questions i want to ask you because you've failed to respond. you teach men how to pressurise women into having sex. you taught... you taught me this. i don't pressurise any women into having sex. no, you teach men to pressurise women... that's completely wrong. so how do you justify it? that's completely wrong. last—minute resistance, eddie. that's completely wrong, that you have twisted it completely out of context. you have a video, eddie, that says, "when you encounter someone saying, ‘this is too fast,‘ "carry on escalating." you have put it completely out of context. that's what it says. it's...
8:52 pm
bro, it's an art. eddie... it's an art. it's disgusting what you guys do. absolutely disgusting. do you know how consent works? trying to portray normal... ..normal, consensual sex as something disgusting... "carry on escalating it." it's absolutely disgusting what you guys do. disgusting. see, if it's not with consent then... it's completely consensual. we do not... we actually help men. we actually help men. so, if anything, we prevent rape culture, so men have the skills to not have to... ..get involved in anything illegal or anything non—consensual. you're teaching men to manoeuvre consent. not at all. and on top of that, you're telling your students that they should approach teenagers. not true. not true. the thing that i teach is exactly this — find out how old the girl is before you do anything sexual. where do you stand on publishing sex audio from women that you secretly recorded? the sex audio? yes. what sex audio? approach 2 lay — £47.
8:53 pm
what are you talking about? you can see... what are you talking about? come on, eddie. what are you talking about? the six-part series. what are you talking about? you meeting an 18—year—old and sleeping with her, and putting the audio online. what are you talking about? that's nonsense. approach 2 lay? that's nonsense. nonsense. you deny that? nonsense. of course. of course. you guys are basically misrepresenting what we're doing, it's absolutely disgusting, and we'll see you in court. coach richard hood is also teaching today. i'm myles from the bbc. irememberyou. yeah. good to see you. how are you? irememberyou. i'm... i'm good. are you having a good day? i just... i just wanted to ask you about... yeah. go ahead. go ahead. ..some of the training techniques that you gave us. shoot. shoot. so, you were teaching men how to pressurise women into having sex. no. that's not true.
8:54 pm
last—minute resistance. you don't remember that, no? no, no. that's not true. no. that's not true. richard, you told me... i remind richard of his "point of no return" comment... i don't remember saying that, no. you don't remember saying that? i don't remember saying that, no. ..and ask him why he secretly films women during sex. we've never filmed girls. no, you can see... we've had actresses. no, no, you can see... you can see... that's actresses. it's actresses? so, if we find her, there's all written consent on that? yes, correct. yes. so, is that with everyone? because i didn't see anyone getting consent when you were in conversation. have i given you consent to film this? this is different. i've been trying to get a hold of you for weeks. i was busy. you don't get consent when we're out in the streets, listening into women's conversations but you do when you put videos online. is that right? anyway, i mean, i don't know where you're trying to go with all of this. 0k. so, you've done nothing wrong? correct. and you don't think you're breaking the law. of course not. well, i thank you... goodbye hugs? no, i thank you for your time, and we'll be in touch. i love you, bro.
8:55 pm
i love the bbc and i love myles. what an amazing guy. 0k. thanks. thanks, richard. have a great weekend, guys. yeah. back in glasgow, the trial of adnan ahmed is over. ajury has found him guilty of harassing young women in the street. he's in jail awaiting sentencing. the recordings he posted online didn't form part of this case. is it time for tougher action on men who film women without their consent? i think any police officer viewing those videos should know that it's a serious question about whether or not consent has been given. and that, i think, is then where the police need to launch a proactive investigation. if they're aware of what seems to be significant predatory behaviour, i do think it's the role of the police to look at trying to proactively identify potential victims and look at trying to put some protection in place. for now, men around the world continue to profit from filming and selling what they call "the secrets of seduction". a game where women don't even know they're being played. to spread those techniques, without naming it that, without saying, "this is what we're doing," when manipulating women, is really insidious. that, in itself, is something that i
8:56 pm
feel really needs to be addressed. it's been a pretty mixed weekend of weather, plenty more heavy rain around on sunday, for most places, the rain did clear away late in the day, this was the picture in the afternoon in warwickshire during the weekend, the rain will lingerfor a time in the north—east but it is clearing the way before the next area of low pressure brings more rain infrom area of low pressure brings more rain in from the south and the west during monday morning. rain initially for parts of southern scotland, north—east england for a time, clearing off to the north sea. dry weather through tonight, reasonably light winds. mist and fog patches forming, as temperatures
8:57 pm
fall to between four to 10 degrees for most of us, mostly frost free, a touch of frost for the most prone spots, and perhaps scotland as well. starting monday morning, mostly dry, rain early on in the south—west of england, because of the rain weather front. rain moving into northern ireland courtesy of the low pressure heading in from the west. quite a 5°99y heading in from the west. quite a soggy monday morning rush hour, kent, sussex, london region. pushing north, across east anglia, into the midlands. heavy downpours, thunderstorms are possible and potentially schooling winds. also looking wet for much of the day for northern ireland into the south—west of scotland. some of the rain pushing into pembrokeshire and cornwall. wind is not much of a feature but can be a little bit blustery with heavy and thundery showers across southern and eastern england. temperatures generally between 12 and 15 degrees, fairly typicalfor this time of between 12 and 15 degrees, fairly typical for this time of year. heading for a monday evening and overnight into tuesday, this batch
8:58 pm
of rain pushes north and east, rain eventually clears out of northern ireland, pushing into central scotla nd ireland, pushing into central scotland for a time. tuesday does not like a drier day, plenty of dry weather with some sunshine, temperatures around 11 to 16 degrees. window of dry weather because we have rain waiting out in the west, during tuesday night and into wednesday, that will sweep out, frontal system. should clear away, leaving a drier story, drier story, blustery showers lasting through much of the week ahead.
8:59 pm
9:00 pm
this is bbc world news today. i'm ben bland. our top stories... kurdish forces announce a deal with the syrian government to allow the army to take control of kurdish territory to halt an invasion by turkey. i'm kasia madera live in warsaw, where the first exit polls for poland's general elections are out. through to the quarter finals for the first time ever.

60 Views

info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on