A woman’s quest for romance on Tinder turned into a harrowing ordeal involving death threats and sexual harassment, leaving her mental health shattered for years.
Nadia, as she is known, met Christopher Harkins on the dating app in 2018. Their encounter was brief, a mere 20-minute date that quickly went sour.
Nadia cut the date short, sensing danger. That decision triggered a torrent of abuse from Harkins.
Nadia is one of six women who have shared their disturbing, often bizarre, experiences with Harkins – a notorious “Scottish Tinder Swindler.”
A BBC investigation revealed that a staggering eleven women reported Harkins to Police Scotland, beginning as far back as 2012.
Despite accusations ranging from physical assault and fraud to threats and violence, Harkins wasn’t investigated until late 2019.
Police Scotland initially claimed the reports centered primarily on the “financial impact on the complainers,” and handled each report in isolation, a flawed approach they now acknowledge.
Case files show Harkins preyed on women he met online across Scotland and London for over a decade, a reign of terror that only ended with his imprisonment in 2024.
Nadia believes the police could have stopped Harkins much sooner.
Now, Nadia is among several victims demanding an apology from Police Scotland for their failure to act on the initial reports against Harkins.
Nadia, now 34, and Harkins, 38, connected on Tinder seven years ago.
After chatting on the app, they arranged to meet for dinner in Glasgow a few weeks later.
The first red flag for Nadia appeared when she arrived to pick Harkins up from his apartment in Cumbernauld.
Dressed in jogging bottoms and a vest, Harkins opened the door and announced he was too tired to go out.
He suggested ordering food and eating at his apartment instead.
“That’s when things started to get weird,” Nadia recalled.
“I went in. It was empty. There was no furniture. The living room was completely bare apart from a TV sitting on some boxes.”
Harkins offered Nadia a vodka. When she declined and poured herself a Diet Coke, the atmosphere shifted dramatically.
“It was like I’d committed a cardinal sin,” Nadia said.
“He was staring at me like, ‘Who do you think you are? Why are you pouring a drink for yourself?'”
“I was nervous and poured it too quickly, spilling some Diet Coke when I turned around.”
“He gave me a really strange look and said something like, ‘You’re so clumsy, you’ve no respect for my place. You’re a clown.'”
“I remember thinking, ‘Are you serious?’ It was just a laminate floor.”
“I said, ‘I’m just going to go,’ and he pointed to the door and swore.”
“I was terrified. I thought he was going to follow me. I just got into the car, locked the doors, and that was that.”
“I thought that was the end of it, but it was just the beginning of something much worse.”
“You wouldn’t believe how much my life was affected by just a 20-minute interaction with this man,” Nadia said.
The rejection seemed to be the catalyst for Harkins, who bombarded Nadia with calls and messages after that night.
The first message read: “How dare someone like you walk out on a date with me?”
The situation escalated rapidly over the next few hours.
Nadia said Harkins threatened to petrol bomb her home, murder her, and attack her father.
Harkins also sent a barrage of insults about Nadia’s appearance.
This had a devastating impact on Nadia’s mental health, something she had been working hard to manage after a difficult period in her life.
“I got messages saying I was like a fat cow,” Nadia recounted.
“I was like a catfish. I looked like a pig. I wore too much makeup. It went on all night. I was crying my eyes out, I had a sore head. At six in the morning, he was still sending me abuse.”
“I remember looking in the mirror and just feeling ashamed of myself.”
“He knew I’d lost weight and I was going to the gym.”
“Just as I was feeling my best, he completely took that away from me,” Nadia said.
The day after their date, Nadia reported the threats and abuse to Police Scotland, providing them with recordings of the phone calls from Harkins.
In the recordings, Harkins could be heard saying he was going to go to her father’s house, drag him out, and beat him up.
“I was told by the police that there was nothing they could do for me,” Nadia said.
“They said there was no direct threat. If and when he did anything, they would get back in touch.”
“No one took a statement. They wouldn’t help me.”
Nadia believes that if the police had responded to her report, Harkins might not have gone on to harm other women.
Harkins continued to terrorize Nadia long after their date.
Nadia blocked his number, but more than a year later, Harkins was still harassing her by contacting people she knew on social media.
“With everything he said, if I didn’t have my daughter, I would have taken my own life,” Nadia confessed.
Harkins is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence, convicted of 19 offences against 10 women, including physical and sexual assault.
Harkins was initially charged with threatening and abusive behavior towards Nadia, as well as threatening her family.
As part of a plea deal, Harkins admitted to stealing over £214,000 from several women through holiday fraud, fake investment schemes, and using their identities to take out bank loans.
It was a desperate plan by one of Harkins’ victims to expose his crimes to the media that ultimately triggered the Police Scotland investigation.
This woman, like Nadia, had been turned away by the police when Harkins defrauded her of £3,247 for a fake vacation.
Harkins’ crimes soon unraveled, and police launched a formal investigation.
Nadia and several other women who had previously made reports were re-interviewed and, this time, asked to provide statements.
Harkins was finally brought to trial in 2024.
While reading about the testimony of a woman who was raped by Harkins, Nadia made a chilling realization: the assault occurred just two months after her own encounter with Harkins.
“That woman could have been saved,” Nadia stated.
“He could have been arrested, and he would never have interacted with her.”
“It’s vile. That’s all I can say about it. Disgusting,” Nadia expressed.
Harkins evaded justice for years.
A BBC investigation uncovered further alleged frauds perpetrated by Harkins, totaling nearly £70,000.
The BBC’s investigation revealed that Harkins had targeted at least 30 women.
They wrote to Harkins in prison to ask him about the allegations, but he did not respond.
DCI Lyndsay Laird led the Police Scotland investigation into Harkins. She stated that it was difficult to explain why the reports against Harkins weren’t investigated sooner.
“Each of the reports were reported at different stages, so they weren’t all reported together, and they were reported in different divisions across Police Scotland,” she said.
“There were no reports of physical or sexual violence reported to police at that time.”
“It was predominantly around financial situations, which if dealt with in isolation, would be deemed a civil investigation.”
“I think it’s fair to say that policing has moved on significantly since those initial reports came in.”
What Was the Court’s Verdict?
Several women said they reported physical violence and sexual harassment years before the police investigation.
When asked if Police Scotland would apologize to the victims who tried to report Harkins, DCI Laird said: “I think that’s a very difficult question to answer.”
“I think the victims have had a successful outcome at court now, based on the investigation that has been carried out.”
“I would like to say with everything that we have done since then, I would hope that experience would not be repeated now,” she said.
Responding to these comments, Nadia said: “I know the police worked really hard when they decided to act, but they should have investigated it sooner.”
“He did this for years. It was avoidable. They should apologize. They could have stopped him,” she insisted.
Harkins was jailed in 2024, almost five years after he was first arrested. He was convicted based on the testimony of 10 women.
Nadia received a phone call informing her of the outcome.
“Those women achieved more than you can imagine,” she said.
The mother-of-two has rebuilt her life and confidence, but the experience has left its mark.
“I feel really good now,” she said.
“I’m a completely different person and much more confident. I’m not afraid to speak out, and I’ll never ignore a red flag again.”
Summary
A woman named Nadia had a harrowing experience after a 20-minute Tinder date with Christopher Harkins in 2018, who has been dubbed the “Scottish Tinder Swindler.” After Nadia cut the date short, Harkins subjected her to death threats and sexual harassment, significantly impacting her mental health. Nadia is one of several women who reported Harkins to Police Scotland as early as 2012, detailing accusations ranging from physical assault and fraud to threats and violence.
Despite numerous reports over several years, Police Scotland did not investigate Harkins until late 2019, initially claiming the reports focused primarily on financial impact. Harkins was eventually imprisoned in 2024, but Nadia and other victims believe the police could have stopped him sooner and are demanding an apology for their failure to act on initial reports. Harkins’ reign of terror impacted at least 30 women and only ended after a victim exposed his crimes, leading to a formal investigation and his eventual conviction on 19 offences against 10 women.