A woman who claims she was raped by a man she met on Match.com who she later found out had convictions for sexual battery is suing the dating website.
The woman, an entertainment executive from California, is demanding that the website screens all its members for sexual predators.
Her lawyer Mark L. Webb is asking for a temporary injunction barring the site from signing up more members until his client’s demands are met.
He said: ‘They are a very powerful and successful online dating service, and they have the means to do this.’
He described his client as an Ivy League graduate who works in film and television. She met her her alleged assailant last year at a cafe in West Hollywood.
She said he seemed charming and so agreed to see him again. After the second date, however, he allegedly followed her home and forced himself on her.
A spokesman for Match.com told the Wall Street Journal: ‘We are very disturbed to hear about this incident. While incidents like this one between individuals who meet on Match.com are extremely rare, it doesn’t make them any less horrifying.
‘We ask all of our members to pay close attention to the safety tips for meeting offline that are on our website, so we can do everything possible to prevent this type of thing from happening again.
