Speaker 1: Novel. Hey listeners, this is Ellie Flynn. Before we get started,
Speaker 1: I just want to let you know that this episode
Speaker 1: contains swearing, explicit sexual language, and claims of sexual abuse.
Speaker 1: It's also a story of female empowerment and camaraderie thanks
Speaker 1: to the women who have shared their stories with us.
Speaker 1: We contacted the photographer mentioned in this podcast multiple times
Speaker 1: for comment, but we never heard back. He has not
Speaker 1: been charged with any crimes and is presumed innocent under
Speaker 1: the law. We also contacted Playboy USA. They state that
Speaker 1: they have asked their licensees to blacklist the photographer mentioned
Speaker 1: in this series and that they prohibit pay to play,
Speaker 1: which you'll hear more about later in the series. Our
Speaker 1: research into his association to Playboy and their statement will
Speaker 1: be detailed in episode four of this series. Oh and
Speaker 1: one more thing. Some of the voice notes you'll hear
Speaker 1: in this episode are voiced by actors. It's September twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: just days since the WhatsApp group was created, and Emily's
Speaker 1: phone is already blowing up.
Speaker 2: Girls.
Speaker 3: I'm just having my hair done and I've just come
Speaker 3: to this group and there's like two hundred and sixty
Speaker 3: nine messages.
Speaker 4: Help girls, I'm loving this group.
Speaker 5: You're cracking me up here.
Speaker 3: I'll make light of this situation because I'm traumatized.
Speaker 2: So ow.
Speaker 5: My dog's just dropped a bone on my leg, so.
Speaker 4: You know, I'm exactly the same, Emily. I laugh in
Speaker 4: the most darkest situations.
Speaker 1: The group was established as a space for the models
Speaker 1: to share their claims of abuse and harassment by photographer
Speaker 1: Luis Gomez. In just days, the group had about a
Speaker 1: dozen members, all models who'd shot with Luise on his
Speaker 1: brief UK tour. Messages, voice notes and screenshots were piling
Speaker 1: up and they were all full of support.
Speaker 2: Em Glad you said that.
Speaker 6: You wouldn't have known what to do because I went.
Speaker 1: Alone and he was saying ex the same things to.
Speaker 5: Me as he was you.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's really shit.
Speaker 5: That's fucking terrible, fucking hell.
Speaker 2: It makes you wonders, isn't it.
Speaker 4: If your friends weren't there, what would you have actually done.
Speaker 1: The women found their stories were really similar. Nobody's would
Speaker 1: tell you that shooting with him could mean amazing things
Speaker 1: for your career, that he'd take you right to the
Speaker 1: top and make you a start.
Speaker 4: You feel like you've made it in the modeling world.
Speaker 4: Especially like Playboy.
Speaker 3: Maybe I'll go to America and I'll be really big
Speaker 3: and famous, and I'll be rich and I'll have a yacht.
Speaker 1: But then the shoot itself wouldn't be as glamorous as
Speaker 1: Louis had made out. It would take place in a
Speaker 1: shitty hotel room or airbnb, the.
Speaker 5: People smoking, weeding them on next door.
Speaker 7: It was horrible, horrible, and I'm thinking, why are we
Speaker 7: shooting in a hotel? I would have thought publications had studios.
Speaker 1: And during the shoot he'd start to pressure you.
Speaker 4: I was like, that's enough, and he said no.
Speaker 1: I just thought I've got to keep this guy happy.
Speaker 2: I thought I was going.
Speaker 1: To get a full on rate and there was nobody there.
Speaker 2: It was awful.
Speaker 1: The women all shared the same feelings of despair afterwards.
Speaker 3: The whole experience was just disheartening, degrading.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, it was Honestly, it's traumatic. I quit
Speaker 2: my job after. I'm heartbroken, to be completely honest.
Speaker 1: The women fell into two categories. Either they were just
Speaker 1: starting out in glamour, green and naive, or the opposite,
Speaker 1: on the brink of leaving it all behind and ready
Speaker 1: to risk everything for one last shot at their Playboy dream,
Speaker 1: But all of them had their careers on the line,
Speaker 1: and it seemed like Luis knew that and exploited it.
Speaker 8: I felt like everything was riding on that poot issue.
Speaker 8: He kind of gets you sucked in with how amazing
Speaker 8: he is. I'm going to do this, so I'm going
Speaker 8: to do that, and then it's nothing like that.
Speaker 1: But at least the women now knew they weren't alone,
Speaker 1: and they wanted to make sure Luis Gomez could never
Speaker 1: behave like this again. It wasn't going to be easy.
Speaker 1: These were women without the influence or money that Luise
Speaker 1: seemed to have. They were glamor models and sex workers,
Speaker 1: some of the most overlooked and judged women in society.
Speaker 1: But they were ready to shout.
Speaker 5: We've all got each other to, you know, support each other.
Speaker 1: Our case is going to be solid. We've got so
Speaker 1: much evidence and.
Speaker 9: So listening to people have their lives debrailed by him.
Speaker 1: I'm Ellie Flynn and from the team at Novel. This
Speaker 1: is the Bunny Trap, Episode two. The receipts.
Speaker 2: H M, Hi.
Speaker 10: Alive, how are you?
Speaker 1: I've driven to the English countryside on a rainy Friday
Speaker 1: to meet another member of the WhatsApp group. She's a
Speaker 1: former model who goes by the name of Herah.
Speaker 2: Thank You.
Speaker 1: She's warm and friendly and immediately welcomes me into her
Speaker 1: home with a cup of tea. Harrah's living room is
Speaker 1: full of personality. It's got black and white striped walls
Speaker 1: that she painted herself, and her own artworks hang everywhere.
Speaker 1: It's very different from the CD hotel room where she
Speaker 1: met Louise Gomez in August twenty twenty. Back then, Hera
Speaker 1: was just beginning her modeling career. She was out of
Speaker 1: work during the pandemic, and with two kids to raise,
Speaker 1: she turned her OnlyFans to help make ends meet. So
Speaker 1: when Louis Gomez wanted to shoot with her, she saw
Speaker 1: an opportunity for a better life. After all, he had
Speaker 1: shot for Playboy. It would come at a cost, though
Speaker 1: Louise wanted six hundred pounds for the shoot. It was
Speaker 1: a lot of money for an out of work single mum,
Speaker 1: but Hera wanted to get noticed by Playboy. That's how
Speaker 1: she justified the cost of the shoot and the cost
Speaker 1: of getting ready. How much moneaged to think you spent
Speaker 1: in preparation beforehand?
Speaker 5: Oh gosh.
Speaker 4: She included the boathowk's lips and then obviously there's the clothes,
Speaker 4: about six to seven hundred pounds.
Speaker 1: Harra says she told Louise that she wanted to do
Speaker 1: topless only, but despite taking a friend with her to
Speaker 1: the shoot, she says, Louise pushed her levels.
Speaker 4: It escalated really really quickly. Within about ten minutes. I
Speaker 4: had everything off with my legs open, which is not
Speaker 4: what I wanted.
Speaker 1: And how did that happen? What kind of things was
Speaker 1: he saying?
Speaker 4: Basically telling me that I was too shy and that
Speaker 4: everyone else does it, so why aren't you doing it?
Speaker 4: You know, if you want to be in Playboy, this
Speaker 4: is what you have to do.
Speaker 1: That was bad enough, but her nightmare with Luise continued.
Speaker 1: After the shoot. Louisa sent Harra some edited photos from
Speaker 1: their shoot that he plans on submitting some magazines like Playboy,
Speaker 1: and that hera camposed on social media, but she can't
Speaker 1: access the photos. The file transfer he sent doesn't work
Speaker 1: for her.
Speaker 2: Hello, I can't access the images.
Speaker 6: Okay, you're gonna make me work twice.
Speaker 1: It seems like Louise spots an opportunity.
Speaker 6: I want you in the top so let's just start maybe.
Speaker 1: This starts a text message exchange between HERA and Luise.
Speaker 1: Just to warn you, it goes into some pretty explicit territory.
Speaker 1: Both their messages are read by actors.
Speaker 6: I want you select your coller.
Speaker 1: Louise tells Harrah she can choose her cover shots, but
Speaker 1: there's nothing for her to select from.
Speaker 2: I've not received any pictures.
Speaker 6: And then send me some super naughty I'm hard already. Hello.
Speaker 4: I just remember being sat there, like up at the
Speaker 4: breakfast bar, a phone in hand, panicking like, oh my god.
Speaker 1: To get her photos. Louise wants hera to send him
Speaker 1: sexually explicit content. Her heart is sinking. She's already paid
Speaker 1: for the shoot where she says he pressured her into
Speaker 1: an open leg pose, and now he wants her to
Speaker 1: send him explicit photos. But she knows if she doesn't agree,
Speaker 1: and she could lose her photos altogether, waste all that money.
Speaker 1: There are so many other models whose photos Louise could
Speaker 1: submit to Playboy.
Speaker 4: I'm still kind of having to in a way keep
Speaker 4: him sweet, and i didn't want to keep him sweet.
Speaker 4: But at the same time, I've got something hanging in
Speaker 4: the balance here, the very thought of actually speaking to
Speaker 4: him or messaging him make me feel physically sick. At
Speaker 4: that point, it was a lose lose situation for me.
Speaker 4: This is kind of how I felt. I felt like
Speaker 4: I was genuinely trapped.
Speaker 1: Harrah pauses for a second, unsure what to do. She
Speaker 1: might be able to buy herself some time if she
Speaker 1: makes it seem like she's going to send Louise what
Speaker 1: he wants, so she types out a reply, I have a.
Speaker 2: Very naughty video for you. Have you resent the images?
Speaker 1: His reply is immediate, I'm doing now. While hera waits,
Speaker 1: his demands continue. I'm never coming more explicit.
Speaker 6: I want came looking at you. I want to see
Speaker 6: you naughty horny.
Speaker 1: Harrah's phone is buzzing in her hand, inches away from
Speaker 1: where her kids are finishing off their dinner. Sausages, broccoli,
Speaker 1: and ketch up are congealing on their plates. Maybe if
Speaker 1: she sends a few emojis, he'll leave off. But before
Speaker 1: she can catch a breath, she gets another message, and
Speaker 1: this one gets to her.
Speaker 6: You're extremely shy.
Speaker 1: Shy. It's the same word Luis used to describe her
Speaker 1: on the chute, the language she says he used to
Speaker 1: push her into shooting open leg can you remember how
Speaker 1: that made you feel?
Speaker 4: Yeah, like I wasn't good enough and that I was
Speaker 4: going to fail in the industry. Then I felt like
Speaker 4: I had to prove that to him, that I'm not shy.
Speaker 2: Sure me, I've not received any pictures.
Speaker 1: With her chest tight. Hearrah gives in. She sends Luis
Speaker 1: a sexy video of her in the shower. Now stay
Speaker 1: with me, because I understand some of you might lose
Speaker 1: sympathy for her at this point. If she's willing to
Speaker 1: share explicit content with a guy she's already had a
Speaker 1: traumatic photo shoot with, you might think she's the one
Speaker 1: at fault. But when you think about it, how much
Speaker 1: choice did hera really have.
Speaker 4: I was sending him things because he had these images
Speaker 4: of me, So I just complied and did as I
Speaker 4: was told, just to make it like an easier process.
Speaker 4: If I just do it, it will speed things up.
Speaker 4: Just get me my pictures and that will be the
Speaker 4: end of it.
Speaker 1: Finally he sends her the pictures.
Speaker 4: I was like, you look really good, and this is
Speaker 4: what's going to go in the magazine.
Speaker 1: We have to hurry up, like right now, she opens
Speaker 1: the file transfer.
Speaker 6: I was like, oh my.
Speaker 4: Gosh, because I hated them, absolutely hated them. My stomach
Speaker 4: was a really huge thing for me. I felt quite
Speaker 4: self conscious, and that's something that I wanted a bit
Speaker 4: of control over.
Speaker 1: This is her big shot, and Louise wants to submit
Speaker 1: photos that she hates. She quickly messages him suggesting other options,
Speaker 1: but less than a minute passes before the next demand.
Speaker 6: Send me baby, I can't wait any longer, lolle take
Speaker 6: some from me. Take one photo for me. I'm gonna
Speaker 6: take care of your cover.
Speaker 1: Louise continued to send her a graphically sexual messages. There's
Speaker 1: too many for us to include them all.
Speaker 4: It made me feel so angry. I can't even really
Speaker 4: describe what it felt like. But it's just all these
Speaker 4: emotions that happen at once. You've got the obviously, the anger,
Speaker 4: you want to cry, and it's really really difficult to
Speaker 4: deal with.
Speaker 1: After HERA sends Louise some more explicit content, he tells
Speaker 1: her that one of her photos has been selected for
Speaker 1: the cover of a magazine.
Speaker 6: The cover is yours, hope that you send me after
Speaker 6: they saying you're designed too.
Speaker 1: But when Louise sends the mock up of the cover,
Speaker 1: it's not for Playboy. It's a magazine that Herah's never
Speaker 1: heard of called Bikini Plus. This is so far from
Speaker 1: what Hera had hoped for, But she's got no fight
Speaker 1: left in her. She just wants this to stop, so
Speaker 1: she pretends.
Speaker 6: I love it me too.
Speaker 1: A few days later, Luise gets in touch again.
Speaker 6: I have some update your Govit goes out this week.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 6: Yes, super cool. Maybe, by the way, can you send
Speaker 6: me some more more what Sylphie's I'm not like the
Speaker 6: ones you send me.
Speaker 7: You have enough explicit images of me from the shoe.
Speaker 6: I know.
Speaker 1: All of this harassment is coming on top of the
Speaker 1: fact that you have paid him for this shoe, You've
Speaker 1: paid him for a service, and he is then withholding
Speaker 1: those photos that you've paid for.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I was pissed off, super pissed off, Like I was
Speaker 4: putting a lot on the line. I was new to
Speaker 4: the industry. I've got two children. You know. This was
Speaker 4: kind of like make or break for me. It's your
Speaker 4: dignity as well, and I felt like I lost that
Speaker 4: as well as everything else.
Speaker 1: Hair's done.
Speaker 7: I'm not sending anything of me to you just for
Speaker 7: a publication. I'll happily go without. I don't want to
Speaker 7: send any photos. Please stop asking again.
Speaker 1: The messages stop, but the feeling remains.
Speaker 4: I felt completely taking the piss up and violated. Actually
Speaker 4: I actually felt dirty, really dirty. I didn't have anything left,
Speaker 4: like genuinely I didn't.
Speaker 1: When Harah found Emily, who I spoke with in the
Speaker 1: last episode, she learned she wasn't alone.
Speaker 4: Emily told me what had happened when she turned up.
Speaker 9: To the shoot.
Speaker 4: Oh creep, absolute creep paver, and then we were like,
Speaker 4: should we message some other people? And that day I
Speaker 4: think we messaged about seventy people. We'd gone back through
Speaker 4: his Instagram, messaged anyone that's recently shot with him over
Speaker 4: here that he could have done it too.
Speaker 1: And that is how they met Kiki.
Speaker 10: J Emily messaged about her and I just burst out tears.
Speaker 5: On the phone.
Speaker 10: Ever since I was younger, I always wanted to become
Speaker 10: a model. I really wanted to be a playerboy mo
Speaker 10: doll like. It was my goal.
Speaker 5: It was my dream.
Speaker 1: I had to play a boy bedroom everything. This is
Speaker 1: key kij She's a model from Newcastle in the northeast
Speaker 1: of England. By the time I got in touch with her.
Speaker 1: I'd heard quite a few of the women's accounts of
Speaker 1: their shoots with Louise, and I was familiar with his
Speaker 1: m O. I was expecting sleeves level pushing and harassment,
Speaker 1: but Kiki's account shocked me. She was one of the
Speaker 1: women who shot with Louise when he came to the
Speaker 1: UK in summer twenty twenty, and her testimony is the
Speaker 1: worst I've heard from that short trip. What you're about
Speaker 1: to hear Akiki's recollections of that day. Her testimony is
Speaker 1: about three and a half minutes long and contains graphic
Speaker 1: descriptions of alleged sexual assault, so please take care when listening.
Speaker 1: On the day of her appointment with Luis, Kiki made
Speaker 1: the six hour journey to London with a friend.
Speaker 10: We've drove down from Newcastle for the shoote Lewis was
Speaker 10: sitting there with lords of Clear Boy magazines and asked
Speaker 10: her for want at Danny Food drink and he had
Speaker 10: vodka and we started just finishing off getting ready, both
Speaker 10: together in the room upstairs. I shot solo with him
Speaker 10: and my friend was downstairs. Everything was fine. He'd help
Speaker 10: us with my cloven and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: After a while Keiki says Luis's behavior started to change
Speaker 1: and he became more physical with her. By the way,
Speaker 1: Keiki's accents from Newcastle, so for those of you outside
Speaker 1: the UK, she uses the plural us when she's actually
Speaker 1: talking about the singular me.
Speaker 10: He was like being more inappropriate or baby, I really
Speaker 10: like you, really like you. God, I'm obsessed with your body.
Speaker 10: I just want to touch it. And I was like right,
Speaker 10: And as I was going out, he pulled us back
Speaker 10: and was trying to kiss us, touching hers poll his
Speaker 10: pants down.
Speaker 1: Keiki says, she tries to stop him.
Speaker 10: I was traumatized or was shocked and say, what you doing, Louis?
Speaker 10: He say, don't you want to make me happy? Don't
Speaker 10: you want to spoil me?
Speaker 2: Baby?
Speaker 10: Since I'm spoiling you, I'm going to help you get
Speaker 10: where you want to go, and started like really and
Speaker 10: all of the things, and I just go out and teas.
Speaker 10: I says, yes, that's what I want, but not if
Speaker 10: you're expecting me to do something and return for it.
Speaker 10: This is never, never the deal, Nothing was ever a
Speaker 10: great on that circumstance.
Speaker 1: I do modeling and model and nonie and.
Speaker 10: He was still trying to kiss us, touching us, trying
Speaker 10: to feel my boobs and stuff, and he started trying
Speaker 10: to pull my head down to his cock to suck it,
Speaker 10: like force my head down, and.
Speaker 5: I kept pulling back.
Speaker 10: He went, do you you're really not going to please me, baby,
Speaker 10: that sort of thing I want normous. I really don't
Speaker 10: want to us as you can tell, says, I'm really upset.
Speaker 2: I just want to go downstairs now.
Speaker 1: All Keiki wanted to do was leave, but she says
Speaker 1: Luise wouldn't let her go.
Speaker 5: He carried on.
Speaker 10: Like just touching us or trying to like pull his
Speaker 10: back to says and stuff. And at the same time
Speaker 10: he was wunk and he's cot with his hand. And
Speaker 10: then she just calmed everywhere and was like, right, okay,
Speaker 10: we're gonna get your friend now.
Speaker 1: Keiki says she was immensely distressed after the sheet. She
Speaker 1: was depressed, turning to drink and drugs in a bid
Speaker 1: to forget. That was until Emily got in touch.
Speaker 10: Emily messaged about it, and she asked me about it
Speaker 10: and wrung its and I just burst.
Speaker 2: Out the tears on the phone. She's went, that's not normal,
Speaker 2: but it's.
Speaker 10: Really not and I'm so sorry.
Speaker 2: It's happened here.
Speaker 4: She says, there's plenty of the girls I've been speaking
Speaker 4: of that has happened.
Speaker 5: And we'll want to do something about it.
Speaker 10: So that was music to my ears.
Speaker 1: If you felt like you could report people to the police.
Speaker 10: I want it to go to the police, and the
Speaker 10: people just say as well, they'll just make you out
Speaker 10: to be the other way around you.
Speaker 5: You'll be the one that's frowned upon. You'll be the
Speaker 5: one that looks like a slag.
Speaker 10: You're going to ruin your image, so I'm supposed to
Speaker 10: just keep your mouth shut and get on mother.
Speaker 1: Basically, you'll be the one that's frowned upon, so it's
Speaker 1: best to keep your mouth shut. This attitude comes up
Speaker 1: again and again when the women tell me about their
Speaker 1: experiences and explain why they didn't go to the police,
Speaker 1: no matter how much they wanted to stop Luis and
Speaker 1: to make sure this never happened to another model, they
Speaker 1: just didn't think they'd be taken seriously. Here's Errah.
Speaker 4: I remember a model saying to me, it's all part
Speaker 4: of the industry. So of course that makes you feel great,
Speaker 4: don't it. If you're going to go to the police
Speaker 4: and tell them that you do only fans or you
Speaker 4: do glamour photography. It's like, well, you're asking for it.
Speaker 4: That is how people see it.
Speaker 1: Not all glamor models identify as sex workers. Some of
Speaker 1: the models in this podcast don't see themselves that way either,
Speaker 1: but society at large sees them that way, and there's
Speaker 1: a stigma that comes with that. The thing is whether
Speaker 1: you're a sex worker or not. Sexual assault convictions are
Speaker 1: staggeringly low. In twenty twenty three in England and Wales,
Speaker 1: only two point four percent of reported rape cases led
Speaker 1: to a charge, so the women turned to each other.
Speaker 1: They didn't think they'd get justice through the legal system,
Speaker 1: so they went vigilante. And there was one place where
Speaker 1: this group of women would be heard Instagram. Between them,
Speaker 1: they had over three hundred thousand followers, and if they
Speaker 1: all called Luis out, they could save other women from
Speaker 1: suffering the same fate. So they leap into action, planning
Speaker 1: their next move. In the WhatsApp group, they tried to
Speaker 1: make sure their evidence is walter to tight.
Speaker 5: Screenshot everything. Now I'm going to download the conversations as well.
Speaker 1: In the FBI, it's mad they hype each other up.
Speaker 4: If our voices mean that we can at least just
Speaker 4: let people know that they're not alone. I want that
Speaker 4: I'm here to support all of you girls. Obviously, the
Speaker 4: more people that speak out the better. But I mean,
Speaker 4: I think we've got a pretty strong case with all
Speaker 4: of us in here anyway.
Speaker 1: But the group is running out of time. Luis is
Speaker 1: coming back to the UK soon.
Speaker 3: He's asked me to shoot again in November and I've
Speaker 3: not responded.
Speaker 1: That means more shoots, more vulnerable women. They need to
Speaker 1: stop him now.
Speaker 5: That's why we want to get this done sooner.
Speaker 4: Imagine those poor girls up there that he's maybe assaulted.
Speaker 5: Shall we do At.
Speaker 7: Seven o'clock announcement when everyone's finished work.
Speaker 1: The models tease the reveal on their accounts. Something big
Speaker 1: is on the way.
Speaker 3: And then we tag each other's profiles all of our stories. Look,
Speaker 3: we're going to expose somebody. Make sure you're watching.
Speaker 1: At seven pm on the twenty fifth of October twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: the model's press send in a series of posts on
Speaker 1: hot pink or black backgrounds with blown up text, they
Speaker 1: share their stories.
Speaker 7: Harah writes, as this guy insists on being credited for
Speaker 7: his work, I'd like to take this opportunity to call
Speaker 7: out this photographer, Louise Gomez. I'm sorry if what I'm
Speaker 7: posting may seem a little inappropriate.
Speaker 2: However, I'm more.
Speaker 7: Than happy to put my dignity on the line if
Speaker 7: it means save in someone else's. Nothing can make me
Speaker 7: feel more shameful than how I felt in those three hours,
Speaker 7: not a single thing.
Speaker 1: Harah posts a photograph that her friend secretly captured on
Speaker 1: the shoot with Luise. It shows her on all fours
Speaker 1: naked on the floor with Louise shooting her from behind.
Speaker 1: She's picked late so that you can't see her intimate areas.
Speaker 1: She's overlaid the image with the text that reads this was.
Speaker 2: A topless only shoot.
Speaker 7: Clearly, Thankfully I had a friend that was clever enough
Speaker 7: to gather evidence while seeing me being level pushed. I
Speaker 7: remember thinking I wish this was all over in this exact.
Speaker 1: Moment, the models had come out swinging.
Speaker 4: We posted everything, and it just blew up from there.
Speaker 3: I've just put so many screenshots from my WhatsApp chat
Speaker 3: and my Instagram chat with him on my story.
Speaker 4: I have just shared screenshots on my Instagram and my
Speaker 4: Facebook Star is You Girls?
Speaker 5: And more than welcome to share whatever is posted from me.
Speaker 3: When you like a match and you drop it on
Speaker 3: something flammable, you don't realize how quickly that is gonna
Speaker 3: catch and just spiral.
Speaker 5: It got spread around like wildfire.
Speaker 3: Girls that we had messaged before and they'd said, oh,
Speaker 3: I don't want to talk about it or I don't
Speaker 3: want to get involved. They changed their tune a little
Speaker 3: bit because they saw how many girls were coming forward
Speaker 3: and they thought, well, do you know what, I'm not
Speaker 3: the only one.
Speaker 5: She feels like she's probably wants to come forward.
Speaker 3: She sent me private messages like a paragraphs upon paragraphs
Speaker 3: like really bad.
Speaker 4: Even if they don't want to tell me anything, I
Speaker 4: just want them to know that if they ever.
Speaker 2: Did that, we're there for them.
Speaker 4: There were just so many people like messaging and their
Speaker 4: experiences were horrific, really bad.
Speaker 2: I've been aware of what's gone on for a long time.
Speaker 4: I've worked with a photographer and there are so many
Speaker 4: girls and the worst thing is about it.
Speaker 2: He's going to still keep getting away with it unless
Speaker 2: people report them.
Speaker 3: I don't think we anticipated how quickly it was going
Speaker 3: to take off.
Speaker 5: We were tagging Louise. It was boom tag. You're there.
Speaker 5: You can't hide. Everybody knows what you're at is. Louise
Speaker 5: went absolutely mental.
Speaker 1: Louise texted Emily this is a bit of their text exchange.
Speaker 6: Wow, thanks a lot. I don't know why you are
Speaker 6: doing these after all the HILP I gave the help.
Speaker 5: You're a fucking predator.
Speaker 6: It is not fair what you're doing and you're not.
Speaker 7: Are you mad?
Speaker 3: Honestly, just go away. He didn't apologize for what he'd done.
Speaker 3: He didn't seem to think that he'd done anything wrong.
Speaker 3: We're not going to just do this to destroy somebody's career.
Speaker 3: You've been caught red handed.
Speaker 1: Only hours after their big Instagram call out, the models
Speaker 1: realized something big has happened.
Speaker 5: He's not blocked girls, he's deleted his account.
Speaker 1: The women had finally got what they wanted. Luise was gone.
Speaker 1: When the models went public, it felt like a real moment.
Speaker 1: But then, bubbling up beside the support, they started getting
Speaker 1: very different messages.
Speaker 5: You would have men commenting, sending DMS saying you do
Speaker 5: only fans.
Speaker 6: You deserve to be treated like this.
Speaker 4: You bring this on yourself. You sold pictures of yourself
Speaker 4: for a living, So what do you expect.
Speaker 6: You've learned your lesson the hard way, so from now on,
Speaker 6: don't do it.
Speaker 3: People were saying, you're just doing it for social media
Speaker 3: clout and for attention, and I feel like we were
Speaker 3: being blamed. We only had each other and we knew
Speaker 3: that we were telling the truth. I broke down in
Speaker 3: tears because it was so hard. When sexual abuse happened.
Speaker 3: People don't want.
Speaker 5: To hear it.
Speaker 3: They're not interested because it's so real. A lot of
Speaker 3: people victim blame, and that's a very common thing that happens.
Speaker 3: I went off the rails for a bit. The easiest
Speaker 3: thing for me at that time was to use substances
Speaker 3: just to forget everything.
Speaker 1: Haro was suffering too.
Speaker 4: In the evenings, I was drinking gin until I'd fallen asleep.
Speaker 4: There was a lot of self destructive behaviors that were going.
Speaker 1: On, and without its leaders, the group fell apart.
Speaker 3: We all started just dropping the ball on communication and
Speaker 3: it would end up being like three or four days
Speaker 3: we wouldn't speak, and then it was a week and
Speaker 3: then I would write in their or herold write in there.
Speaker 4: Sorry girls, I've been a little bit absent because and
Speaker 4: that great lately, Sorry.
Speaker 5: Girls, I've literally just read this.
Speaker 3: You'd get one reply or two replies, or no replies,
Speaker 3: and it's like I just kind of leave this.
Speaker 5: Then everybody just sort of went back to doing their
Speaker 5: own thing.
Speaker 1: The models had caused a social media storm, but like
Speaker 1: all storms, it passed, and when the world moved on,
Speaker 1: Luis crawled back out of the webwork.
Speaker 4: I think he just changed the domain name of his website,
Speaker 4: he started a new Instagram. He just kept popping up everywhere.
Speaker 1: What the fuck? No, that ainn't even funny, is it.
Speaker 10: The saddest thing is it's like everybody knows meant Although
Speaker 10: because there was so much evidence.
Speaker 1: So much evidence, the women were at rock bottom. They'd
Speaker 1: put their necks on the line to expose the man
Speaker 1: they said was a predator, and nothing had changed. But
Speaker 1: there was one more option to whom it may concern.
Speaker 1: I'm sending this email on behalf of myself and quite
Speaker 1: a few other models about the horrific dealings we've all
Speaker 1: had with a playboy photographer, Luis gai Mez. This is
Speaker 1: the email I told you about, the one the models
Speaker 1: sent to me and twelve international newspapers. As far as
Speaker 1: I'm aware, I'm the only journalist who responded. By twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: thanks to the Me Too movement, it felt like the
Speaker 1: world was finally paying attention to allegations of sexual abuse
Speaker 1: and harassment. But for these women, their claims were falling
Speaker 1: on deaf ears. It seemed as though an invisible line
Speaker 1: had been drawn excluding women in the sex industry. I
Speaker 1: wanted to help change that.
Speaker 4: Guys, I've just heard back from Ellie on sitting my parents.
Speaker 5: This is insane news.
Speaker 2: I'm absolutely buzzing.
Speaker 5: No, that's unbelievable news.
Speaker 2: I'm so buzzed.
Speaker 5: I cannot wait for this.
Speaker 1: That was years ago. Louise has never been held accountable,
Speaker 1: but that's about to change. I'm going to try and
Speaker 1: finish the job. Emily, Herra and the rest of the
Speaker 1: model started coming up on the Bunny Trap. We tried
Speaker 1: to figure out who and what we're up against. His
Speaker 1: associations are vital to his reach, and I just remember thinking,
Speaker 1: I got to watch this one.
Speaker 10: This is our opportunity to for the first time speak
Speaker 10: to someone close with Louise.
Speaker 8: Why do I start with Lewis?
Speaker 2: Oh my god, it's way darker and white, deeper than
Speaker 2: I could they ever imagine.
Speaker 1: Thanks to the women who shared their stories with us.
Speaker 1: We contacted Luis Gomez multiple times for comment, but we
Speaker 1: never heard back. He has not been charged with any
Speaker 1: crimes and is presumed innocent under the law. We also
Speaker 1: sought comment from Playboy USA. They declined our request for
Speaker 1: an interview, but you can hear their statement later in
Speaker 1: the series. The Bonnie Trap is produced by Novel. For
Speaker 1: more from Novel, visit novel dot Audio. The show is
Speaker 1: hosted by me Ellie Flynn. You can find me on
Speaker 1: social media by searching my name that's eb l i
Speaker 1: E Fly double n. This season is produced by Eleanor
Speaker 1: Biggs and written by me Ellie Flynn and Eleana Biggs.
Speaker 1: Our assistant producer is Amalia Sortland, with additional production from
Speaker 1: Lee Meyer and Saskia Collette. Additional research by Valeria Rocker.
Speaker 1: The editors are Georgia Moody and Austin Mitchell, our executive
Speaker 1: producers and Max O'Brien and Craig Strachan. Our fact checker
Speaker 1: is Fendall Fulton. Production management from Scherie Houston and Charlotte
Speaker 1: Sound Design, mixing and scoring by Nicholas Alexander and Daniel Kempson.
Speaker 1: Music supervision by Nicholas Alexander, Elena Biggs and Max O'Brien,
Speaker 1: Original music composed and performed by Jake Law, and additional
Speaker 1: production by Nicholas Alexander, Louisa Gersty and Daniel Kempson. The
Speaker 1: series artwork was designed by Christina Lienkole Willard Foxton its
Speaker 1: creative director of Development, Harris. Texts were voiced by Anna Brindle.
Speaker 1: Various other women were voiced by Boo Miller. Luisco Mers
Speaker 1: was played by Juan Solari.
Speaker 5: Novel