Match.com Stabbing Victim Wins Right To Sue Dating Site For Failure To Warn

After an almost fatal stabbing, a Match.com user has been given the go-ahead to sue the site for failure to warn.

Mary Kay Beckman, 50, met Wade Ridley, 53, on Match.com in September 2010, and having dated for just eight days she decided to call it off.

However, four months later, Ridley broke into Beckman’s garage, stabbing her repeatedly before stamping on her neck and head in an attempt to kill her.

Having been hospitalised for her injuries, Beckman underwent surgery to mend her jaw, part of her skull as well as her sight and hearing.

And this was not the first attack of its kind carried out by Ridley, who also admitted to the murder of another of his Match.com interests in 2011 when in police custody.

And following her ordeal, Beckman decided to try and sue the company for $10m, however her case was dismissed in 2013 by the federal district court of Nevada, who granted Match.com’s motion to dismiss the suit.

The court said Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act meant Match.com was immune from negligence and claims of negligent infliction of emotional distress, by being an “interactive services provider” rather than a “information content provider.”

However Beckman appealed this ruling, and last Thursday, courts ruled in her favour, saying she could sue Match.com for $10m for failure to warn.

Beckman’s suit says that Match.com failed to warn her and others of the dangers, saying: “They don’t say one in five are part of an attempted murder or one in five are killed. They don’t tell you people are missing.”

And this is not the first ruling of its kind, the Beckman case baring similarities to anonymous rape victim Jane Doe who sued Model Mayhem under similar circumstances after courts agreed the site had prior knowledge of the potential dangers.

Match.com commented on the ruling saying: “The many millions of people who have found love on Match.com and other online dating sites know how fulfilling it is.

“And while that doesn’t make what happened in this case any less awful, this is about a sick, twisted individual with no prior criminal record, not an entire community of men and women looking to meet each other.”

Ridley was sentenced to 70 years in prison, however, he took his own life whilst behind bars last year.