The life of Ghislaine Maxwell is a dark fairy story, one that plays out in reverse, of how a clever and beautiful woman ends up serving a monster while too many of her powerful friends look away. Sweeney concludes: “Ghislaine was both the double victim of monsters and, to those without power and money and connections, a monster in her own right. Reading Sweeney’s description of her “hopelessly servile, horribly abusive relationship” with her father it is hard not to feel some sympathy for her – a sentiment quickly extinguished when you consider that she has shown no sympathy, nor remorse, for the young girls she pimped on Epstein’s behalf. If you or someone you know is a victim of sexual assault, you can contact victim support free on 0808 16 89 111 or visit www. Victims also accuse Ghislaine of running the machine that served Epstein and that she was the real mastermind behind his actions.

Perhaps carried away by the tawdriness of his subject matter, Sweeney’s writing can sometimes veer alarmingly to a sort of Mickey Spillane redux: Kevin Maxwell’s spirited wife Pandora is described as his “ballsy squeeze”). 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. One day in 1965, according to Betty, three-year-old Ghislaine Maxwell stood in front of her and declared: "Mummy, I exist. The final part is the strongest because Sweeney is able to do what he does best: place himself in the action, rehearse the arguments, and make biting, morally informed character assessments. Sweeney raises the question of whether she has been left to carry the can for these two men who, the evidence suggests, killed themselves (Maxwell herself never believed her father’s death was suicide).Hunting Ghislaine, a new LBC podcast, begins on November 19th, available on Global Player on your smart speaker, iOS or Android device, online or wherever you find your podcasts. Nonetheless, it doesn’t require any penetrating insight to see that Maxwell was an entitled woman whose social connections and talents were ripe for exploitation by Epstein. Robbie Ashcroft, Managing Partner, Entertainment Development of The Story Lab said: “As soon as The Story Lab heard John Sweeney’s vision for the Hunting Ghislaine podcast we saw its potential to evolve from sound to screen. But it has to be said that there is no shortage of men who have committed the most heinous abuse of young girls who walk free or have been prosecuted and served far less time than 20 years. Sweeney also talks to a dermatology expert whom he introduces as “the professor of sweat” to discuss Prince Andrew’s claim that, after the Falklands war, he was left unable to perspire.

A photograph of her outside a Los Angeles branch of In-N-Out Burger appeared on front pages around the world. He had been useful to them because of his connections with [Romanian president Nicolae] Ceaușescu and other dictators.After all, her trial was closely covered by the international media, she has been the subject of several podcasts, a number of documentaries, she’s been Netflixed, she featured prominently in the Virginia Giuffre case against Prince Andrew (settled out of court for many millions of dollars), and there are six books, not including this one, that I can find devoted to her. John Sweeney said: “No old school Fleet Street reporter like me who knew what a monster Robert Maxwell was cannot feel some pity for Ghislaine Maxwell on the day he fell off his yacht. Pagliuca, with his bouffant grey curly hair a spitting image for another great American, Jerry Springer, read out Carolyn’s surname by mistake. You end up with this mixture of great connections and confidence and you move among the great and the good - but fundamentally, you're not that sure of yourself," he says. When she saw the resurgence of the US Black Lives Matter movement earlier this year, she wanted to show solidarity, so she and a friend decided to organise a small event in June in the Forest of Dean.

Ghislaine was Epstein’s partner, and she hails from a wealthy family, given that her father was a billionaire.Robert Maxwell was a war criminal, killing an unarmed man in cold blood, a thief, a liar and a bully. The truth is that Ghislaine learned to service her father and then had to service a second monster - that's what she's done her entire life. When Robert Maxwell drowned, some speculated that he was pushed, others that he killed himself, and yet others that he was simply peeing overboard and lost his balance. Hunting Ghislaine is an LBC podcast and is available on Global Player and all other major podcast platforms.

This episode contains detailed descriptions of torture and violence which some listeners may find distressing. Prince Andrew can’t explain why a photo of him exists with his arm around the waist of Virginia Roberts Giuffre, then 17, with Ghislaine looking on inside her mews flat in London. In his new podcast for LBC, John Sweeney tells how his investigation into Ghislaine Maxwell left him believing there are some ‘pretty disgusting people’ sat around the high tables of Manhattan, Palm Beach, London and Windsor.A number of girls subsequently turned up at his house wearing school uniforms and braces on their teeth. Enter a second Jeffrey, this one bearing the surname Pagliuca, one of the defence team at the Manhattan federal court trying Ghislaine Maxwell on six charges of, effectively, grooming girls and very young women to sate her millionaire lover’s paedophilia. Photograph: BBC Jana Carpenter and Barnaby Kay star in The Lovecraft Investigations: The Shadow Over Innsmouth.