A 20-minute date with a Tinder predator ‘destroyed’ my life for years

A woman who matched with predator Christopher Harkins on Tinder, after spending just 20 minutes in his presence, said she was subjected to years of death threats and harassment, which left her mental health “destroyed”.

Speaking about going on a date with the notorious cheater and rapist for the first time in 2018, Nadia said the harassment started after she ended their date early due to “red flags”.

A sports massage therapist is among half a dozen women who have shared their harrowing and often bizarre experiences with one of Scotland’s most prolific romantic scammers. new BBC Disclosure podcast: Matched with a Predator.

The BBC investigation found that by 2012, 11 women had tried to report Harkins to Police Scotland.

Despite allegations of physical assault, fraud, threats and harassment, Harkins was not investigated by police until late 2019.

Police Scotland said the previous reports were “mainly related to finances” and that they were all dealt with on a case-by-case basis; this situation, he hoped, “will not be repeated now.”

Harkins spent almost a decade committing crimes against women he met online in Scotland and London before being jailed in 2024.

Nadia believes it should have been stopped sooner.

He is among a number of victims who have called on Police Scotland to apologize to those who tried to report him.

Nadia, now 34, and Harkins, now 38, matched on Tinder seven years ago.

They chatted over texts and a few weeks later decided to go out for dinner in Glasgow.

The first red flag for Nadia came when she arrived to collect Harkins from his flat in Cumbernauld.

He answered the door wearing sweatpants and a vest, saying he was too tired to go out. He suggested they stay at his place and order takeout.

“This is where it gets weird,” Nadia said.

“I walked in. It was completely empty. There was no furniture. The living room was completely empty except for the television on some boxes.”

Harkins offered to make Nadia vodka. He says the atmosphere changed when he rejected alcohol and poured himself a Diet Coke.

“It was like he was having an internal tantrum,” he said.

“It’s like he’s asking me, ‘Who do you think you are? Why are you pouring yourself a drink?’ He looked as if to say.

“I was a little nervous and poured it all the way to the top of the glass. When I came back, I spilled the Diet Coke.

“The look in his eyes was crazy. He said something like, ‘You’re so incompetent, you don’t respect my property. You’re a clown.’

“‘Are you for real?’ I remember thinking. It was laminate flooring.

“I said, ‘Look, I’m leaving.'” He said he pointed at the door and swore.

Nadia says: “I was so scared. I thought he was going to follow me. I jumped in my car, locked the doors and that was it.”

“I thought it ended there, but it got worse.

“You wouldn’t believe how badly my life was affected by a 20-minute interaction with this man.”

The rejection seems to have been a huge trigger for Harkins, who began bombarding Nadia with calls and messages as soon as they broke up.

The first was: “How could someone like you have the courage to go on a date with me?”

As events escalated in the following hours, Nadia said Harkins threatened to bomb her house with a “petrol bomb”, kill her and attack her father.

She also sent a barrage of insults about her appearance.

This had a devastating effect on Nadia’s self-confidence; this was something he worked hard to regain after going through a difficult time in his life.

“I got messages saying I was a fat nerd,” she said.

“I was a catfish. I looked like a pig. I had on too much make-up. This continued throughout the night. I cried so much I had a headache. At six in the morning he was still swearing at me.”

“I remember feeling ashamed of myself when I looked in the mirror.

“He knew I was losing weight and going to the gym.

“When I thought I was at my best, it literally took it away from me.”

The day after their appointment, Nadia reported the threats and abuse to Police Scotland. He also played a recording of a phone call from Harkins.

In the video, he can be heard saying that he was going to go to his father’s house, drag him out and kick him.

“I was told nothing could be done for me,” Nadia said.

“They said there was no direct threat; if he did something they would call them back immediately.

“Nobody took a statement. They didn’t want to help me. I was screaming from the roof, ‘I can’t let this happen, you don’t know what he can do, he’s threatening me.'”

Nadia said: “If they had done something then, a lot could have been done for the girls after me.”

Harkins continued his harassment long after their appointment ended.

Nadia blocked his number, but more than a year later the man was still harassing her by contacting people she knew on social media.

“The state of mind it put me in, I would have ended my life if it wasn’t for my daughter,” he said.

Harkins is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence after being convicted of 19 crimes against 10 women, including physical and sexual violence.

He was initially accused of threatening and harassing Nadia and threatening her family.

As part of the plea agreement, a not guilty plea to that charge was accepted and Harkins pleaded guilty to stealing more than £214,000 from women by using their identities to obtain holiday scams, fake investment schemes and bank loans.

What ultimately sparked Police Scotland’s investigation was one of the women who desperately turned to the media to expose Harkins and protect others.

He was also turned away by police when Harkins defrauded him of £3,247 on a fake holiday.

Her story was published in October 2019.

The extent of Harkins’ crimes quickly became apparent and police launched a formal investigation.

Nadia and other people who reported on history were examined again and this time they were asked to testify.

Harkins goes to trial in 2024.

When Nadia read the testimony of a woman who had been raped by Harkins, she realized a sickening truth: It had been two months since she met him.

“That girl was completely saveable,” he said.

“He could have been arrested and never interacted with her.

“Dirty. That’s all I can say about it. Disgusting.”

Our investigation uncovered further fraud allegations by Harkins worth approximately £70,000.

The BBC knows he targeted at least 30 women.

We wrote to Harkins in prison to ask about these allegations. He didn’t answer.

DCI Lyndsay Laird led Police Scotland’s investigation into Harkins.

He said it was difficult to say why the reports were not investigated sooner.

“They were each reported at different stages, so they were not all reported together, they were reported across different units within Police Scotland,” he said.

“No physical or sexual abuse was reported to the police at that time.

“This was mainly about finances and, when handled in isolation, they were treated as civil investigations.

“It’s fair to say policing has improved greatly since the first reports came in.”

Many women told the BBC they had reported incidents of physical assault and sexual abuse in the years before the police investigation.

Asked whether Police Scotland would apologize to victims who tried to report Harkins, DCI Laird said: “I think that is a very difficult question to answer.

“Based on the investigation, I think they have now achieved a successful court outcome.

“With everything we have put in place since then, I am hopeful that this experience will not be repeated now.”

In response to these comments, Nadia said: “I know they worked really hard when they decided to do something about it but they should have done something sooner.

“He’s been doing this for years. It could have been prevented. They should have apologized. They could have stopped him.”

Harkins was jailed last year, almost five years after his initial arrest. He was convicted based on the testimony of 10 women.

Nadia received a phone call to inform her of the result.

“These women have accomplished more than you think,” she said.

“Other people who might meet him in the future don’t need to anymore. What he did was truly incredible; monumental.”

The mother of two managed to rebuild her life and self-confidence, but the experience left its mark.

“I’m very well now,” he said.

“I’m a completely different me and much more confident. I’m not afraid to speak up and I will never ignore red flags again.”