by Lucia Osborne-Crowley
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Publisher’s blurb
The explosive, behind-the-scenes account of the criminal trial of Ghislaine Maxwell.
I understand – and sympathise with – the feeling you might have that you already know the Jeffrey Epstein story. But I am not here to tell you a story about Jeffrey Epstein, or even Ghislaine Maxwell. I am here to tell you the stories of these women, many of whom have never spoken at length before, and about the real impact of sexual trauma on their lives.
In December 2021, Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of five counts of sex-trafficking of minors, and is now serving 20 years in prison for the role she played in Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of four girls. The trial was meticulously covered by journalist and legal reporter Lucia Osborne-Crowley, one of only four reporters allowed into the courtroom every day.
The Lasting Harm is her account of that trial, a gripping true crime drama and a blistering critique of a criminal justice system ill-equipped to deliver justice for abuse survivors, no matter the outcome.
Centring the stories of four women and their testimonies, and supplemented by extra material to which Osborne-Crowley has exclusive access, The Lasting Harm brings this incendiary trial to life, questions our age-old appetite for crime and punishment, and offers a new blueprint for meaningful reparative justice.
Review
by Rachel Spencer
When Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty of sex trafficking in 2022, I remember wondering at the time if Maxwell herself had been a victim of Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein, who amassed a fortune as an investment banker, was also charged with sex trafficking. He suicided in jail before his trial. One of his best friends, who is reported to have said of him that he was a ‘terrific guy’ was Donald Trump. Enough said.
Maxwell was rich, beautiful, well-educated, chic. Ostensibly, she looked like a successful woman who had it all: wealth, fame and glamour, with powerful friends on speed-dial. Designer clothes, fancy cars and stylish parties were her everyday reality, a lavish lifestyle that hid the evil that she perpetrated. The title of this extensively researched piece of long-form journalism refers to the harm inflicted not only on the four victims who testified against her at her trial, but all the people who were systemically affected through the concentric circle ripple effect of that harm.
The title of this true crime odyssey makes it very clear that this story did not end when Ghislaine Maxwell was imprisoned. Maxwell’s insistence on her innocence, her denial of wrongdoing and absence of remorse ensure that the harm she and Epstein inflicted continues to tear at the fabric of the lives of the four women who agreed to be interviewed by Osborne-Crowley for this book. Osborne-Crowley shows how and why the harm inflicted on these women through sexual abuse and sex trafficking is lasting. It endures. It continues to cause damage to the women, to their relationships and to every aspect of their lives.
Osborne-Crowley is an Australian writer who has previously won awards for writing about trauma. Herself a survivor of child sexual abuse, she writes with empathy and a deep understanding of what the four witnesses have endured. She explains on the first page that ‘[her] journalism is trauma-informed and that [her] interview style is safe, sensitive, and always puts victims’ needs and comfort first.’ Before interviewing each of the four women, Osborne-Crowley discloses that she is ‘a survivor of child sexual abuse and [has] dedicated [her] investigative reporting skills to trying to contribute to a better understanding of the scourge of sexual abuse and its long shadow.’ So triggering were these issues for Osborne-Crowley that she was readmitted for trauma treatment from the stress after writing the book.
The author handles the material with a sensitivity that discloses a deeply ethical focus to her writing. The book is not a salacious true crime piece. Osborne-Crowley makes it very clear that she is ‘not here to tell you a story about Jeffrey Epstein, or even Ghislaine Maxwell.’ The Lasting Harm does not focus on the story of the offenders in the way of many true crime texts. Instead, Osborne-Crowley situates the victims at the heart of her narrative.
‘I don’t want to tell you about billionaires or private jets or Prince Andrew,’ she writes. ‘I want to tell you about the actual people … I want you to hear the voices of those who were abused, and then ignored, and then silenced.’ This book is a carefully crafted rendering of the evidence given against Maxwell at her trial. Osborne-Crowley describes how Maxwell groomed each girl, probing their vulnerabilities and then preying on them in partnership with Epstein. Physical intimacy began through seemingly innocuous massage (“Jeffrey likes to be massaged”), leading rapidly to nudity, sexual touching and eventually rape and trafficking.
Osborne-Crowley set her alarm for 1.30 am every day so she was in line to secure one of the four seats in the press gallery so she could observe the trial each day. She maps out how the Prosecution presented evidence to prove that Maxwell won the trust of these girls, then normalised abusive sexual conduct. Maxwell introduced the girls (one only 14 years old at the start of the abuse) to Epstein knowing exactly what was going to happen to them; there were times when she was there when the abuse occurred. Maxwell was charged with six crimes including the enticement of a minor to travel to engage in sex acts, transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, sex trafficking of a minor and three related conspiracy charges.
When found guilty, Maxwell expressed no remorse for her involvement. She apologised for the pain that the victims experienced but she expressed no apology for the pain she actually caused. She failed (and fails) to recognise that she perpetrated horrendous crimes on innocent and vulnerable young women. As a reader following this trial through Osborne-Crowley’s eyes, I feel a sense of satisfaction once the verdicts are reached, but I am left with a lingering discomfort arising from the deliberate authorial choice by Osborne-Crowley not to fully explore Maxwell’s role in her partnership with Epstein and does not address the issue of whether Maxwell herself was a victim. The closest we get to understanding the Maxwell-Epstein relationship lies in the words Maxwell chooses in her short address to the court: “It is the greatest regret of my life that I ever met him. I believe he was a manipulative, cunning and controlling man.”
Despite the very difficult subject matter, this careful and thorough analysis of a complex case is well worth reading. This type of book is never easy to read but in the hands of this author who is both a good writer and also, being legally trained, has the skill to guide the reader through the complex areas of law that are the backdrop to this narrative, readers are assured of a nuanced and accurate explanation of the circumstances that led to these victims telling their stories. Most importantly, through the narrative technique of relating each woman’s account individually, Osborne-Crowley alerts the reader to the hideously manipulative grooming techniques employed by Maxwell over and over again. Osborne-Crowley reiterates at the end of the book that she wrote it to shed light on grooming, delayed disclosure and traumatic memory, concepts that are still misunderstood but that play an important part in child sexual abuse.
Most disturbingly, Osborne-Crowley ends the book by telling us that ‘there is so much more that I know, that I wish I could print … [a]bout how sometimes the call is coming from inside the house. About the lasting harm that causes. I cannot tell you these things now, but I promise you that I tried…I hope that one day the courts and lawyers and newspapers and publishers will be brave enough to print what I know.’
Let’s hope so.