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'Pickup Artists' Sharing Covert Recordings Pursuing Women As Young As 16 For Sex

'Pickup Artists' Sharing Covert Recordings Pursuing Women As Young As 16 For Sex

BBC's Panorama has exposed the vile covert recordings of women being share on online 'seduction workshops'.

Joanna Freedman

Joanna Freedman

Sleazy men promising to teach 'the art of seduction' by targeting random women are set to be exposed in a new Panorama documentary.

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The disturbing practice sees so called 'pickup artists' teach other men how to flirt, using random, unsuspecting women as examples in a bid to teach manipulative and objectifying behaviour and often encourage sexual violence.

And it is laid bare in the investigation - which is due to air on BBC One on Monday night (7th October) - showing journalist Myles Bonnar going undercover in the highly controversial industry.

In the documentary, Myles takes part in a "boot camp" in London, run by a company called Street Attraction, where students fork out as much as £600 each in a bid to master the art of seducing women.

The group posts what is calls 'infield videos,' which are essentially covert recordings of the teacher, Eddie Hitchins, 34, and other coaches claiming to be with young women.

The disturbing YouTube videos teach men to sexually harass women on the street
BBC

Street Attraction has more than 100,000 YouTube subscribers, and residential courses can be joined across Eastern Europe.

Its website, Approach To Lay, features paywalled content from Eddie - whose real name is Edib Baraktarovic - which promises to help users "meet and attract beautiful women," and flirt them "all the way to the bedroom".

One video is said to show Eddie picking up an 18-year-old girl using what he describes as a 'cold approach'.

Filming covertly the whole time, he allegedly flirts with her on the street, takes her to a coffee shop and then eventually to bed - where he records the sound of them having sex.

Shutterstock

As he takes undercover journalist Myles out for his first lesson, Eddie and the other coaches tell students to linger in clothes shops to catch their 'targets'.

They are seen suggesting Myles approach teenage girls on the street in the same manner Eddie did in his video.

"She's too young for me man," Myles tells Eddie, to which he replies: "Doesn't matter. Even if she's underage it's not illegal to stop someone."

"With ones that you think are young like before, it's better to assume she's older - even if she's younger," a coach adds.

The disturbing Street Attraction YouTube videos have since been deleted
BBC

Later in the 'workshop', Eddie's fellow coach Richard Hood - real name Ryszard Kaptur - alarmingly teaches that men are sometimes "too preoccupied" with consent, and goes on to list tips in overcoming Last Minute Resistance (or LMR) to sex.

When quizzed by the undercover journalist, both men deny teaching pressuring women into sex. Eddie says: "If anything we help prevent rape culture, to help prevent them getting involved in anything illegal or non-consensual."

Discussing the worrying findings, barrister Kate Parker tells Panorama that the explicit clips taken during these lessons could be illegal.

"It's plain to me, sharing of that kind of content online is obscene because it's private content and was never intended to be broadcast," she says.

Street Attraction offer some worrying advice to men on their social channels too
Facebook

"If I was prosecuting that, I think I would charge them under either the Communications Act or the Miscommunications Act, in relation to indecent, obscene or offensive footage."

Asked whether teaching to overcome Last Minute Resistance is legally problematic, she replies: "I think it's really troubling, because it's encouraging these young men to bypass any red flags that are put up by these women', but 'Criminal law tends to play catch-up with social phenomena, new types of behaviour.

"But I think once we have a test case of this kind of behaviour that goes through the courts and results in conviction, everyone - not least the pick-up artists themselves - will be a lot clearer on what they can and can't do."

Adnan Ahmed was exposed by Panorama
Scotland Police

The Street Attraction group aren't the only so-called 'pick-up artists' that have been outed by the BBC for their horrendous practices.

Glasgow based Adnan Ahmed, who called himself Addy A-Game on YouTube, was also outed by BBC's The Social earlier this year, with a police investigation finding him guilty of harassing young women on the street.

One the women affected by his actions, Beth, tells the BBC show tonight: "I'd just come out from work about half seven, eight o'clock at night and it was November, so it was really quite dark outside. He started making like really crude comments and stuff, like really early on in the conversation.

"He was mentioning he was in the Ukraine or something, he had hired prostitutes and he was saying I'd be like, better than prostitutes. Just a horrible manner, and he was quite touchy with me... I'm 17. He told me he was 27, but he was actually 37 years old."

Women described their experiences of being approached
BBC

Meanwhile, a second young woman, Emily, recalls she had no idea she was being filmed by Ahmed, who was seen boasting in the covert video afterwards: "If I had met her on vacation, it would have been a same-day-lay."

Another of his videos, now removed from the site, told his his viewers: "Remember they [women] want you to take the lead. Remember this is not rape. Listen to her actions, her body, not her words."

YouTube has now deactivated both the Addy A-Game and Street Attraction channels for breaking its rules on nudity and sexual conduct.

In a statement, the video sharing site said: "YouTube strictly prohibits explicit sexual, graphic or harassing content. 'Nothing is more important than protecting the safety of our community, and we will continue to review and refine our policies in this area."

Panorama: Secrets of the Seduction Bootcamp, is on BBC1 at 8.30pm on BBC One.

Featured Image Credit: BBC

Topics: Life News, TV News, Real