Hunting Ghislaine

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Detained, tortured, stabbed, and sentenced to death. This is Aiden Aslin’s astonishing story, from the heart of the conflict in Ukraine. Aiden fought with the Ukrainians and was captured by Russian forces during the siege of Mariupol. After a normal childhood in Nottinghamshire and ambitions to be a policeman, how did he find himself a prisoner of war? And how did he survive it? The ages of the women when they say Maxwell helped Epstein sexually abuse them were Jane: 14, Kate: 17, Carolyn: 14 and Annie: 16. You might say there’s a pattern of behaviour by Maxwell and Epstein right there. So, from one of her father’s greatest enemies in life, for the monster’s daughter, some measure of pity. Following the huge success of LBC podcast Hunting Ghislaine in 2020, investigative reporter and host John Sweeney has returned with Hunting Ghislaine: The Trial. Each week John will dissect the key moments and talking points from the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell. As the trial progresses in New York, John will offer a weekly analysis of this grimly fascinating case, in his inimitable style.

John Sweeny, what a guy. I wish I had a fraction of his ability to not give a crap! His guests are always fascinating and John gets some great answers out of them The enormous cowpat has had the last laugh: Sweeney is very proud of Hunting Ghislaine. “The journalism is solid. We set out points of view and investigate them and get to a conclusion.”After hiding for almost a year, she now finds herself facing multiple charges for helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually exploit and abuse under-age women which could lead to her spending the rest of her life in jail.

Sweeney methodically chronicles the steps of grooming; spotting the victim as being vulnerable, unstable, from a broken home; the friendly approach, the offer of a job, advancement or simply ready cash; the seemingly innocent suggestion of giving Epstein a massage; the ensuing abuse and entrapment. Ingrams said: “I believe that Ghislaine’s behaviour in regard to Epstein and everything is partly due to the fact that she had this very peculiar upbringing with this monster man as her father. People need to connect the Ghislaine story with this nasty man who is her father.” Hunting Ghislaine with John Sweeney sets out to tell the strange story of Maxwell and her role in the Epstein scandal. Paula Cuddy, Creative Director and Executive Producer for Eleventh Hour Films, said: “John’s compelling podcast ‘Hunting Ghislaine’ puts Ghislaine Maxwell centre stage, unravels her story and asks what went wrong for the girl who seemingly had it all. Set in a richly glittering international world, dark secrets are revealed and always in the shadows looms the formative relationship between a daughter and her father. It has all the hallmarks of a premium drama - and with John alongside our partners at Global and The Story Lab we look forward to delivering.”

Hunting Ghislaine is a new LBC podcast investigating the life of Ghislaine Maxwell. Hosted by reporter John Sweeney ( Panorama, Newsnight, The Observer), the podcast is co-commissioned by Global and The Story Lab, part of dentsu creative. Episodes will be available every Thursday from 19th November on Global Player.

His girlfriend, his alleged pimp and partner in a series of sex crimes against a series of underage women, some as young as 14, Ghislaine has remained in the shadows. Sweeney looks into how Donald Trump’s former secretary of labour, lawyer Alex Acosta, could have brokered a secret “sweetheart” deal for Epstein in 2008, whereby the latter agreed to plead guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution in return for serving only 13 months for the crime. The agreement spared his co-conspirators prosecution and stipulated that Epstein was allowed to go to work every day of his incarceration. Last month, Acosta and his legal team were cleared by the Department of Justice of wrongdoing over that deal. One female acquaintance recalls a party at Robert Maxwell’s posh “council house”, Headington Hall (rented from the local authority), where Ghislaine organised a game of “guess whose”, in which the men would be blindfolded and the women removed their bras to be fondled and groped. Ghislaine, she says, saw “sex as simply a currency”. Another puts it more bluntly, saying “she was obsessed”.But this is no fairy tale. HUNTING GHISLAINE sets out the other side of the story, and it’s one of the darkest you will ever read. Then there was the shared interest in sex. Epstein – as Donald Trump observed – had a widely known enthusiasm for young girls. According to one visitor, there was only one book on view in his home: the Marquis de Sade’s The Misfortune of Virtue. Shawn said of Carolyn, one of three girlfriends he says he pimped out to Maxwell and Epstein: “She was a child”, one who, “only had two jobs ever. She worked at Arby’s [a US fast food combine] and she worked for Jeffrey” [Epstein]. Carolyn’s grandfather raped her when she was four years old. Ten years later, she said she was sexually abused by Epstein and Maxwell. The story of Jeffrey Epstein has been told in many ways over the past two years, but none have given more than a few cursory moments to Ghislaine Maxwell. His girlfriend, his alleged pimp and partner in a series of sex crimes against a series of underage women, some as young as 14, Ghislaine has remained in the shadows. When Epstein’s life began to unravel, Ghislaine vanished, only to reappear when she was arrested by the FBI earlier this year. If Maxwell was like that to his staff, how did he treat Ghislaine, the apple of his eye? Monstrously says an old enemy, Richard Ingrams, former editor of Private Eye who was sued so many times by Maxwell that he can’t remember.