Speaker 1: Novel.
Speaker 2: Hey listeners, I'm your host, Ellie Flynn. Before we get started,
Speaker 2: I just wanted to let you know that this episode
Speaker 2: contains swearing, explicit sexual language, and some upsetting scenes. It's
Speaker 2: also a story of female empowerment and camaraderie thanks to
Speaker 2: the women who have shared their stories with us. We
Speaker 2: contacted the photographer mentioned in this podcast multiple times for comment,
Speaker 2: but we never heard back. He has not been charged
Speaker 2: with any crimes and is presumed innocent under the law.
Speaker 2: We also contacted Playboy USA. They state that they have
Speaker 2: asked their licensees to blacklist the photographer mentioned in this
Speaker 2: series and that they prohibit paid to play the practice
Speaker 2: of charging models to appear in magazines. Our research into
Speaker 2: his association to Playboy and their statement can be heard
Speaker 2: in episode four, Last Time on the Bike.
Speaker 3: Like Hi, my name is Louise. He told me he
Speaker 3: likes making pictures in the room, so I didn't think
Speaker 3: much of it. And then your slowly, step by step
Speaker 3: also get into the content of making nude pictures, and
Speaker 3: I to ask him again, You're not gonna put them anywhere? No,
Speaker 3: they're just for you. He was putting the camera down,
Speaker 3: and after he put it down, he started his way
Speaker 3: up from my feet and legs, kissing me upwards. I
Speaker 3: was scared to leave at this point when I was
Speaker 3: with him alone in the room, So what other options
Speaker 3: do I have?
Speaker 4: Just let him have it.
Speaker 3: Just close your eyes and it's done.
Speaker 2: After her shoot with Luis Gaimez, Gabriella is trying to
Speaker 2: take her mind of what's just happened. She can't leave
Speaker 2: the hotel yet. Her mom is on the way to
Speaker 2: join her for a holiday when the event is over,
Speaker 2: so for now she's start here. Thankfully, She's met a
Speaker 2: great group of models at the event and sports them
Speaker 2: at the hotel restaurant.
Speaker 3: Four girls invited me to join, so we had lunch
Speaker 3: together and we were talking about a little bit of
Speaker 3: making pictures and shooting ideas about the background.
Speaker 2: Gabriella doesn't tell the other models about her experience with Louise,
Speaker 2: but she does mention that she shot with him.
Speaker 4: One of them looks worried.
Speaker 3: She told me, just be careful of Louise Gomez.
Speaker 4: He has Patreon.
Speaker 3: Sorry, my English is pretty good, but I don't understand
Speaker 3: that word.
Speaker 4: Can you please explain what it is?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 3: Patreon just like an online challenge, just like only fans
Speaker 3: Okay Patreon.
Speaker 2: It's an online platform and subscription site where subscribers pay
Speaker 2: to access content. Gabrielle has never heard of it, but
Speaker 2: the other models have.
Speaker 3: Basically, what Louise is doing with all the girls that
Speaker 3: he's making pictures with, He's putting that onto his page
Speaker 3: and he's getting money for that, and I was like what.
Speaker 2: Gabriella's mind instantly jumps to the explicit photos and videos
Speaker 2: she's shot with Louise, the content he promised her would
Speaker 2: never go anywhere and was just for her.
Speaker 4: Is that now online for sale?
Speaker 3: I'm gonna throw up.
Speaker 4: That's how disgusted I felt.
Speaker 3: And at that moment, I knew that I was fucked.
Speaker 2: Gabriella can't hide the panic on her face. She's terrified
Speaker 2: the photos she took with Louise might end up on
Speaker 2: the internet. She's never shot nude like that before, so
Speaker 2: what now? Luckily the other models have an idea.
Speaker 3: Make a recording of him definitely saying make it clear
Speaker 3: that you do not give consent to him spreading your
Speaker 3: pictures and or videos.
Speaker 2: A recording she can use as evidence if she ever
Speaker 2: needs to prove that she didn't want her content being
Speaker 2: published online.
Speaker 3: This is the act of my life. If I can
Speaker 3: act through this, I can be a world famous actor,
Speaker 3: can be a Golden Globe already.
Speaker 2: So that's exactly what Gabrielle is going to do. She's
Speaker 2: going to confront Luis. I'm Ellie Flynn and from the
Speaker 2: team at Novel. This is the Bunny Trap. Episode six,
Speaker 2: We Got Him Girls, Thank you. A few days on
Speaker 2: from her shoot with Luise, Gabriella meets him again. Her
Speaker 2: phone is already recording.
Speaker 6: Wait, I'll just go get my water.
Speaker 3: Yes, good, I'm just gonna take that.
Speaker 2: While with me.
Speaker 3: When I entered his room, I was super nervous. I
Speaker 3: was super scared, trying to not show it because I
Speaker 3: in this moment felt like right now I am in
Speaker 3: court and this is the recording that is gonna be
Speaker 3: helping me.
Speaker 2: Gabriella wastes no time getting into the reason why she
Speaker 2: wants to speak to Luise. She wants to get on
Speaker 2: tape that the explicit photos that he pressured her to
Speaker 2: take won't appear online. What you're hearing is the secret recording.
Speaker 2: Gabriella maid a warning it's upsetting to listen to.
Speaker 6: Did you put my videos on your internet page.
Speaker 3: Please don't because you didn't tell me.
Speaker 6: If I'm asking you, please do not put anything online.
Speaker 6: Because girls told me you have Patreon.
Speaker 1: Yes, everything that goes in the magazine goes to the Patreon. Okay,
Speaker 1: I did not know.
Speaker 3: I thought the pictures just for the magazines.
Speaker 6: Okay, I did not know. You didn't not tell me
Speaker 6: pictures from the magazine come to Patreon.
Speaker 7: Yes, I'm gonna have money for my pictures and you
Speaker 7: can use it too.
Speaker 6: Yes, but please do not put me here on Patreon,
Speaker 6: because I do not know if I want anything published.
Speaker 6: Because when you and I make the pictures, I thought,
Speaker 6: you know, maybe just for me, So I have for
Speaker 6: me on my computer.
Speaker 5: No Instagram, no nothing.
Speaker 6: Do you understand what I mean?
Speaker 5: Oh? But because so, if not, why we do photos
Speaker 5: for me?
Speaker 6: I make pictures because I like making pictures for me. Okay,
Speaker 6: But when we do normally, it's like you're gonna use
Speaker 6: it and I'm gonna use it.
Speaker 4: That is the way that money you do, like the motels.
Speaker 5: It's just for me.
Speaker 6: Listen, But when we we're shooting, I told you I
Speaker 6: can use it or I cannot use it. You never
Speaker 6: told me that you also have Patreon, and I did
Speaker 6: not know, and I do not want you to use
Speaker 6: it because I do not know if I want the
Speaker 6: videos on the internet.
Speaker 4: Photographer does have to tell you, like, hey, I have
Speaker 4: a patron, or I want to open a or I don't.
Speaker 5: Understand why not.
Speaker 1: This is my pussy I do not want.
Speaker 8: I mean, it's your pussy, but it's the photos of
Speaker 8: the photographer.
Speaker 3: I felt super humiliated. You just just stop behind my back,
Speaker 3: and how you think that you have the right to
Speaker 3: do anything. What in the actual fucking fuck.
Speaker 6: I just do not want my nude pictures on the internet.
Speaker 3: Please do not do this.
Speaker 4: Yes without my approval?
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, So it's like that if you don't want that,
Speaker 9: no one uses you, just buy it.
Speaker 2: If you didn't quite catch that, Luise seems to be
Speaker 2: saying that Gabriella can purchase nude pictures of herself from him.
Speaker 3: I was just so nervous and frustrated and angry at
Speaker 3: this point that I was ticket depressed.
Speaker 2: Gabriella focuses. She asks Louise to delete the photos.
Speaker 4: We can delete it.
Speaker 1: I don't have to use it.
Speaker 6: I do not need for me.
Speaker 3: I just do not want them on the Internet.
Speaker 6: Please do not put them on the internet.
Speaker 5: Understand this?
Speaker 6: And why am I afraid of this? My vagina is
Speaker 6: showing and I do not want stranger people to see
Speaker 6: me on the internet because I.
Speaker 4: Told you at the beginning and I'm not ready. Okay,
Speaker 4: do you understand.
Speaker 3: I was really really careful of my choice of words.
Speaker 3: You have to understand English is not my first language,
Speaker 3: is my third.
Speaker 10: So I was.
Speaker 3: Really really careful to try to get him many many times,
Speaker 3: to see easy answers like yes or no.
Speaker 4: Finally, Louise offers a compromise. Okay, so what we want
Speaker 4: to do is is this.
Speaker 1: Okay, I don't want to put it in the internet.
Speaker 4: Okay, but I'm gonna keep the content because I.
Speaker 5: Don't want to erase the content. If you don't.
Speaker 7: Want to put that in the Internet, I don't want
Speaker 7: to do it, think you, But I don't want to
Speaker 7: erase the content.
Speaker 5: Okay.
Speaker 2: This is insane to me. It's difficult to comprehend how
Speaker 2: Louise can be so callous when Gabriella is clearly distressed,
Speaker 2: but at least she managed to record him saying that
Speaker 2: he won't put her content on the internet. The conversation
Speaker 2: isn't over yet though. What you're hear next is Louise
Speaker 2: coming on to Gabriella on tape. It's distressing, so please
Speaker 2: skip ahead two and a half minutes if you don't want.
Speaker 5: To hear it.
Speaker 1: Everything I do for you are you're gonna do for me?
Speaker 5: You're gonna be good to me.
Speaker 3: I am always good to you. It's covered.
Speaker 5: I like it, totally cover.
Speaker 6: I like this amazing body you.
Speaker 1: Want to do.
Speaker 11: I take everything out way.
Speaker 5: You're so beautiful, thank you.
Speaker 6: But let's concentrate you, see, because I want just to
Speaker 6: finish this.
Speaker 1: Well, that is taking out everything now.
Speaker 3: Perfect, beautiful.
Speaker 4: Well that's everything. Are you hungry?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm very hungry. That is you say that you
Speaker 3: want to be with me always always, Well, let's go
Speaker 3: eat something.
Speaker 4: But don't worry.
Speaker 6: I'm always good to you, just like you're good to me.
Speaker 3: Was I not good to you?
Speaker 6: Yes, so don't worry.
Speaker 1: You won't be all at least give me five minutes
Speaker 1: or something.
Speaker 4: You are hungry, aren't you?
Speaker 5: Can you say by yourself if you're hungry? Huh? Say
Speaker 5: hello to this? Okay?
Speaker 3: It was the next he was trying to crest me here,
Speaker 3: kissed me on the shoulder neckish part. He was trying
Speaker 3: to come closer to me. Just say hello, hello, Yeah,
Speaker 3: say hello. You can say hello.
Speaker 5: M hmmm, yes I can say hello to this. Yes,
Speaker 5: just a little bit. Let's go just like a five.
Speaker 6: Minutes your hungry.
Speaker 4: And I put my hazily set five minutes time.
Speaker 3: I did not see that coming. I did not, so
Speaker 3: I was like, what the fuck in my head? I
Speaker 3: had to rewire my brain and manage a new situation.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, you're a moment pets. Just use the
Speaker 3: exact excuse of your life of them.
Speaker 4: The thing is, I got my period.
Speaker 1: Yes, that is that is That is so bad.
Speaker 3: But that's the thing you just say around your apparent
Speaker 3: and men are grossed.
Speaker 2: I was like, I'm glad that Gabrielle is able to
Speaker 2: find something to laugh at in this horrific situation, but
Speaker 2: it makes me angry that she has to make excuses
Speaker 2: to get out of that hotel room. Yet a novel
Speaker 2: woman having to play pretend just to get someone to
Speaker 2: back the funk off.
Speaker 6: Thank you, ladies, I got that.
Speaker 12: I got it all.
Speaker 4: I got it all. I got it all, I got
Speaker 4: it all.
Speaker 5: Who was I talking to you?
Speaker 3: When I was saying that at this point, I was
Speaker 3: just thinking of the ladies who were advising me to
Speaker 3: do that, But it goes out for all the ladies
Speaker 3: who needed that, all the ladies on this planet Earth.
Speaker 11: We got him Ross, so we got him.
Speaker 2: It's been years since Gabriella confronted Luis in that Mexican hotel.
Speaker 2: She doesn't know for sure if he kept his word
Speaker 2: about keeping her content private. To find out what he
Speaker 2: is sharing online, me and my producer Elenor and our
Speaker 2: assistant producer Amalia go to his patron ourselves. It just
Speaker 2: seems to have just opened up a whole new what's
Speaker 2: the world I'm looking for?
Speaker 4: It's like a whole a whole new ye, but also aside.
Speaker 8: To the story, I guess, but he makes money off
Speaker 8: them twice.
Speaker 4: It's so fucked up. So yeah, we're logging onto the patron.
Speaker 4: I'm in, You're in, I'm in, right well done.
Speaker 2: Luis's patroon, like his website and Instagram, is run under
Speaker 2: the Moniker Universe one three seven studios. We can't see
Speaker 2: how many subscribers he has. His content is separated into
Speaker 2: different tiers, which you have to pay to access. He
Speaker 2: calls them levels, and the more you pay, the more
Speaker 2: explicit the content seems to get.
Speaker 8: Hul We pay one hundred pretty much one hundred and
Speaker 8: fifteen quid for the most basic tier, but through clicking
Speaker 8: around the website you can see how much he charges
Speaker 8: for the different levels.
Speaker 2: Patreons behind a paywall and it's impossible to access any
Speaker 2: other way, and we've really sort of had to wrestle
Speaker 2: with the fact that we know that money is going
Speaker 2: to him, and obviously we don't want to be doing
Speaker 2: anything that financially supports him, but we've needed access to
Speaker 2: it to keep on top of what he's posting on there.
Speaker 4: We start scrolling, Oh, here we go, what's this?
Speaker 2: So he's uploaded a photo of a model who's completely
Speaker 2: naked with her legs spread and he's pixelated her most
Speaker 2: intimate areas. And who's uploaded that with a caption Some
Speaker 2: more super exclusive girls coming to the Vault don't miss out.
Speaker 2: Sign up today to get the link. The Vault the
Speaker 2: most expensive tier of all. It promises Luis's most explicit
Speaker 2: content for an eye watering price three thousand dollars a month.
Speaker 8: Three thousand dollars. That is absolutely wild.
Speaker 2: We can't see what's inside the vault, but Luise teases
Speaker 2: what's in there. If there's a model I've shot with
Speaker 2: that you're looking for, it's probably posted here. Most of
Speaker 2: the photos we can access our images from Luisa's shoots.
Speaker 2: But then we find something really disturbing.
Speaker 13: One of the posts on the Patreon just has a link,
Speaker 13: a dropbox link, no image, just the link. So we're
Speaker 13: gonna put it in the browser and test it out.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, what the fuck?
Speaker 2: It's a self shot video of a model masturbating with
Speaker 2: a sex toy.
Speaker 4: It's clearly not from a professional shoot. Oh my god,
Speaker 4: this is so upsetting. I know who that is. Oh
Speaker 4: my god, I feel so upset.
Speaker 2: The woman in the video is someone I've come across
Speaker 2: in my reporting. It's just that I think I know
Speaker 2: she is, and I think she had a bad experience
Speaker 2: with him. I don't know whether she sent him that,
Speaker 2: but somehow he's got that video and he's trying to
Speaker 2: charge one thousand dollars a month.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Maybe she knows about it, but my god said, she's
Speaker 2: probably got no idea. As we scroll further down the
Speaker 2: page and through seemingly endless posts with sexually explicit content.
Speaker 2: I recognize more faces some of the British models from
Speaker 2: the group who called out Luis or nine and twenty
Speaker 2: twenty Emily HERA, oh.
Speaker 8: God, just more and more girls, more and more girls.
Speaker 4: This girl as well, I know.
Speaker 13: He's everywhere and has been everywhere. There are so.
Speaker 4: Many girls, There are so many girls. This is so groom.
Speaker 2: And then I support another familiar face from a post
Speaker 2: made just five days ago. It's a model in America
Speaker 2: who I'm due to speak to about Luis in a
Speaker 2: few hours time. I mean, that's her, right, Yeah, that's her.
Speaker 2: I've seen and heard now the impact of these shoots
Speaker 2: on so many models, and just looking through here and
Speaker 2: realizing that there's still so many that I haven't spoken
Speaker 2: to and that I don't know. It's it's like actually
Speaker 2: wags heavy, just like thinking what have they been through?
Speaker 2: Is it the same as the other girls I've spoken to?
Speaker 2: The model Luise posted five days ago on his Patreon
Speaker 2: is an American woman who we're calling Anna. She's worried
Speaker 2: about being identified, so her words are also voiced by
Speaker 2: an actor. Like many of the other models we've spoken to,
Speaker 2: Anna was young and new to the industry when she
Speaker 2: met Louise in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 12: He had like the lanyards that said, you know, publications
Speaker 12: for Playboy Maxim and I was like, oh, he's a
Speaker 12: big deal.
Speaker 4: Anna says.
Speaker 2: Louise told her she'd be great in Playboy, but she
Speaker 2: couldn't afford his rights.
Speaker 4: Instead, she says he made her another offer.
Speaker 12: He told me he had like a proposition for me.
Speaker 12: He was like, I'll be like a sugar daddy of
Speaker 12: sorts and I'll get you published.
Speaker 5: What did he ask for and what did you agree
Speaker 5: that you would give in exchange?
Speaker 12: Basically just photos of myself, like touching myself or playing
Speaker 12: with myself and just like sexy things.
Speaker 2: It was a turbulent time in Anna's life. She just
Speaker 2: had a bad breakup and was drinking heavily. Modeling was
Speaker 2: her escape.
Speaker 4: She says.
Speaker 2: Louise promised her the explicit photos she sent him would
Speaker 2: be for his eyes only. As for their shoots, Anna
Speaker 2: had set levels.
Speaker 12: I made it clear. I was like, hey, no photos
Speaker 12: of me topless, like I don't want anything compromising, but she.
Speaker 2: Says that Luise level pushed her. I've seen some of
Speaker 2: the fire ties from Anna's shoot that Louise said was
Speaker 2: for Playboy. She's in a dingy looking hotel room. The
Speaker 2: lighting is harsh, and Anna looks bleary eyed. Bruises are
Speaker 2: visible on her arms. She says there's signs of nutritional
Speaker 2: deficiency from her drinking.
Speaker 5: What happened on that photo shoot.
Speaker 12: I mean, I'm sure that I was drunk. I don't
Speaker 12: really know. I just know that it wasn't It wasn't
Speaker 12: good for me, It wasn't healthy. It's hard because I
Speaker 12: want to share, you know, because I want If I
Speaker 12: can share it and it helps the situation, I will,
Speaker 12: you know. But at the same time, it's like stuff
Speaker 12: that I just feel so dumb for. I can't believe
Speaker 12: that I allowed myself to get caught up in that.
Speaker 2: Anna doesn't want to talk in detail about her shoot
Speaker 2: with Louise, but she says they did end up shooting
Speaker 2: much more explicit content than she'd planned to, so now
Speaker 2: Louise didn't just have the photos and videos that she'd
Speaker 2: been sending him as part of their arrangement. He also
Speaker 2: had nude photos from their shoot. After the shoot, Anna
Speaker 2: says she signed a model release form. They're pretty standard
Speaker 2: contracts between models and photographers, which set out how the
Speaker 2: photos can be used, but Anna didn't understand the extent
Speaker 2: of what she was signing. She says she begged Louise
Speaker 2: to keep all of her explicit content private.
Speaker 12: He kept assuring me, no, babe, like, that's for my
Speaker 12: eyes only. You think I'm gonna put you on a
Speaker 12: porn website? Ha ha ha, like acting like it was
Speaker 12: a joke. I tried to be cautious. I was like, look,
Speaker 12: I want to have another career. This isn't my ultimate goal, Like,
Speaker 12: I do not want photos of me out there, And
Speaker 12: he kept assuring me, no, babe, like that's for my
Speaker 12: eyes only.
Speaker 5: Did she believe him? Did she feel reassured?
Speaker 4: I did.
Speaker 2: But then a friend of Anna's got in touch. He'd
Speaker 2: see in explicit photos of her on Louise's Patreon. An
Speaker 2: I was furious. She'd never imagined her photos would end
Speaker 2: up there, so she confronted Luis.
Speaker 12: I showed him a picture. He just denied it. He's like,
Speaker 12: where's that published? That's not anywhere. I'm like, it's right
Speaker 12: in front of my fucking face. What are you talking about.
Speaker 12: There's literally a picture of you know, my vagina just
Speaker 12: out there. It was just insane, Like the level of
Speaker 12: uncreed that he showed about what he posted.
Speaker 2: Anna wanted to know what else Louise was prepared to sell,
Speaker 2: so her friend posed as a prospective buyer.
Speaker 12: That's when shit got real messy, because my friend kind
Speaker 12: of started conversing with him and was like, Oh, I
Speaker 12: like this girl, right. He's like, Oh, if you send
Speaker 12: me four thousand dollars, I'll send you a video.
Speaker 2: Of her, a video, a video she says he'd promised
Speaker 2: was for his eyes only. According to Anna's friend, Louise
Speaker 2: was now offering that up for sale for thousands of dollars.
Speaker 5: How did you feel when your friend told you that?
Speaker 12: I was pretty broken. It just made me feel really
Speaker 12: fucking dumb. I'm not sure what the word is. It's
Speaker 12: not like grooming, when you know, predators groom a young child,
Speaker 12: but similar.
Speaker 2: Her friend set her up with a lawyer who helped
Speaker 2: her send Louise a ceased desist letter. Louise reacted badly.
Speaker 2: Anna says he told her that he'd only removed the
Speaker 2: content from his Patreon if she paid him five thousand dollars.
Speaker 12: It's a whole plan he has. It's a whole scheme
Speaker 12: that he's got going I just thought, Wow, that just
Speaker 12: shows what a fucking psycho he is.
Speaker 2: When Anna refused, she says Louise made her account offer,
Speaker 2: citing the model release form she signed after their shoot
Speaker 2: as a reason why she should pay up.
Speaker 12: He basically said that, in the spirit of closing this
Speaker 12: matter and not wasting any more time, I am willing
Speaker 12: to accept a thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: Payment, one thousand dollars to remove explicit content that Anna
Speaker 2: never wanted him to share, let alone sell.
Speaker 12: That's fucking ridiculous and I'm not going.
Speaker 5: To do that.
Speaker 2: So that's why Anna's photos are still on Louise's Patreon,
Speaker 2: the same photos we just saw. Anna's moved on with
Speaker 2: her life, but she's still angry.
Speaker 12: I finally did contact him maybe three months later, and
Speaker 12: I just said, like, I cannot believe how evil you
Speaker 12: are and the level of disrespect you showed. You'll surely
Speaker 12: get what's coming to you, and he just blocked me.
Speaker 12: I'm really frustrated with how powerless I feel. God, I'm
Speaker 12: just you know, talking about it now. I'm like, I
Speaker 12: was so stupid.
Speaker 10: You know, I really don't want you to feel stupid.
Speaker 10: You are not the only person that has experienced this.
Speaker 10: You're not the only person that he's done this too,
Speaker 10: and this is all on him. So please don't blame
Speaker 10: yourself in any way, and don't feel stupid, because I
Speaker 10: think anybody could have ended up in the same situation.
Speaker 4: Because Anna isn't alone.
Speaker 2: We've spoken to multiple models who've been caught out by
Speaker 2: signing Luise's release forms. We don't have Anna's specific contract,
Speaker 2: but we did get hold of a few model release
Speaker 2: forms Luise has been using. We ask the lawyer if
Speaker 2: they do give Luise the right to post content like
Speaker 2: Anna's on Patreon. Unfortunately, the answer might be yes. The
Speaker 2: contracts grant Luis the right to use almost any content
Speaker 2: he has of the models. They state he's allowed to
Speaker 2: use images from their shoots and also quote any other content,
Speaker 2: so Luis could maybe even argue that he's allowed to
Speaker 2: use the explicit content sent by models for his eyes only.
Speaker 2: The contracts also grant Luis the right to post that
Speaker 2: content wherever he wants. They're so broad that he can
Speaker 2: post to quote any and all media, so Luise could
Speaker 2: argue that he's allowed to post content to Patreon, for example,
Speaker 2: and even make money off it. Legally, it could be
Speaker 2: difficult for the models to argue that Luis is doing
Speaker 2: anything wrong, but regardless of legalities, this is morally and
Speaker 2: ethically fucked. Many of the models we've spoken to say
Speaker 2: Luis pressured them into signing contracts. Many say they didn't
Speaker 2: know or understand what they were signing. Many say Luis
Speaker 2: level pushed them into taking more explicit photos, photos that
Speaker 2: Luise can now do whatever he wants with if Luise
Speaker 2: knows models like Anna yesperbably don't want these pictures online,
Speaker 2: if they've explicitly told him that he can't possibly give
Speaker 2: a shit. All Louise seems to care about is getting paid.
Speaker 2: It's all so bleak. I feel really shaken up by
Speaker 2: discovering Louise's patron and speaking to Anna. I call Eleanor
Speaker 2: for a debrief. Nobody is stopping him, and he's getting
Speaker 2: away with it. It feels like he is caring less
Speaker 2: and less. He thinks that he's untouchable.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I agree.
Speaker 2: This proves like the trauma doesn't for so many reasons,
Speaker 2: doesn't end with that photo shoot. It's not just one
Speaker 2: awful experience. It's not just a bit of level pushing.
Speaker 2: It's a prolonged abuse of his position that it's just
Speaker 2: it's really really upsetting. It's horrific financially, it's sexually, it's
Speaker 2: all about him getting what he wants, and he is
Speaker 2: just trampling over people's lives in the process.
Speaker 8: Yes, I feel that we have responsibility to these women.
Speaker 8: There are so many of them. We're at the point
Speaker 8: now where people are referring their friends to us. The
Speaker 8: modeling community is very close, like there's a really strong,
Speaker 8: powerful sisterhood, and I actually find it quite frightening how
Speaker 8: many lives he has affected.
Speaker 2: I just I can't I can't understand what it's going
Speaker 2: to take to stop this man. I want to catch
Speaker 2: up with some of the other women I've seen on
Speaker 2: Luis Gomez's patron including Emily and Herra from the group
Speaker 2: of models who spoke out about Luise in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: They might not even know that Louise is profiting from
Speaker 2: their photos, and I need to tell them.
Speaker 4: I go to see Hera.
Speaker 2: She was one of the WhatsApp group's leaders when Louise
Speaker 2: and Herra shot together.
Speaker 4: She was very new to modeling.
Speaker 2: It was during the pandemic, she was out of work
Speaker 2: and she'd started an OnlyFans to support her family. HERA
Speaker 2: says her shoot with Louise was a horrible experience. She
Speaker 2: says he pushed her into shooting open leg images before
Speaker 2: sexually harassing her afterwards. But now years on, Louise's posted
Speaker 2: dozens of explicit images from their shoot on his Patreon,
Speaker 2: and as if that's not bad enough, he repeatedly uses
Speaker 2: her real name in the posts, which she never shares online. Ever,
Speaker 2: it can be really risky for glamor models to share
Speaker 2: their real identities, and nearly everyone we meet uses an alias,
Speaker 2: but Louise has exposed hera. He's also promoting her images
Speaker 2: on x formerly known as Twitter. He's shared one of
Speaker 2: her open leg photos on there. He's covered her intimate areas,
Speaker 2: but you can clearly see her face. His caption teases
Speaker 2: that you can find the uncensored image on Patreon. I
Speaker 2: go to see her on a gray and rainy day
Speaker 2: and I'm absolutely dreading telling her so I felt. He
Speaker 2: posted this last month.
Speaker 11: Oh my god, are you kidding on Twitter.
Speaker 4: With a link to his patron.
Speaker 10: Wow.
Speaker 4: Sorry, mh.
Speaker 14: Okay, but it's like, do you know I was for
Speaker 14: something I did for such a short period of time
Speaker 14: it haunts you.
Speaker 11: You feel so betrayed, like I didn't deserve that. I
Speaker 11: knew that I didn't want to do it forever because
Speaker 11: I have children, and you know, it's I don't want
Speaker 11: that stuck to me. I don't want to be attached
Speaker 11: to that anymore. And then you know, you've got something
Speaker 11: like that that pops up and you just think, and
Speaker 11: someone's just posting it, like I don't know if like
Speaker 11: my child's friend would see, you know, like it's not
Speaker 11: ever going to fully go away. And I've not even
Speaker 11: seen that, not seen it. I've not you know, it's
Speaker 11: just it's just absolutely awful. But I didn't even ask
Speaker 11: for it to go anywhere. I just wanted to support
Speaker 11: my family, And like, what do I even do with that?
Speaker 11: What can I do with this? That's the thing. It's
Speaker 11: completely out of my control. And that's what's scary is
Speaker 11: not being in control. It's something that you have concerned over,
Speaker 11: like that's my body, Like how dare that's something that
Speaker 11: I would only I'm allowed to share with people, no
Speaker 11: one else, And it's just such a oh, I can't
Speaker 11: even I cannot even like I'm so angry.
Speaker 4: For me what I found most.
Speaker 2: Upsetting and I think despicable is the fact that this
Speaker 2: has come do you years after you publicly said I'm
Speaker 2: unhappy with them and I don't want you to use them,
Speaker 2: and I wish they'd never been taken, and I can't
Speaker 2: understand how someone can still be publishing them after you've
Speaker 2: explicitly said that, and seeing a photo of you that
Speaker 2: you've never seen to be posted on Twitter, like, it's just.
Speaker 11: Oh, it's the not knowing and not having the control
Speaker 11: and not being able to stop.
Speaker 4: That is really.
Speaker 11: Terrifying.
Speaker 4: In London, I meet up with Emily.
Speaker 2: She's the first model I met who started off my
Speaker 2: investigation into Luise. I recognized Emily in a video tased
Speaker 2: on Luise's Patreon account. It's of her engaging in a
Speaker 2: sex act. Okay, so we found some what looks like
Speaker 2: it's going to be videos of you on his maturan account.
Speaker 2: I don't have access to the videos themselves because he's
Speaker 2: charging between either three hundred and eighty three pounds a
Speaker 2: month or seven hundred and sixty five pounds.
Speaker 4: A month, absolutely vile.
Speaker 2: But there's a screenshot of one of them that I
Speaker 2: can see, So is that you.
Speaker 9: Yeah, that's me? That's from twenty twenty. That's from my
Speaker 9: birthday in twenty twenty with the next boyfriend.
Speaker 4: I'm literally shaken.
Speaker 9: That was filmed on my iPhone, this iPhone actually, so
Speaker 9: he has played no part in filming or being party
Speaker 9: to that. I don't think I hadn't even shot with
Speaker 9: Luis at this point, So this content doesn't belong to him.
Speaker 4: And he's selling that video for.
Speaker 9: Seven hundred plus pounds, like that's almost my mortgage payment,
Speaker 9: you know, Like that's ridiculous. Oh, it's actually making me shake.
Speaker 4: Have people paid him for this? That's absolutely vile.
Speaker 2: Crucially, unlike Anna, Emily says she never signed a release
Speaker 2: form that might allow Luis to post this. Watching out
Speaker 2: about the law around him using that content and charging
Speaker 2: that amount of money for it.
Speaker 9: Going based purely on our insurrections that we have had.
Speaker 9: They haven't been pleasant. He obviously doesn't like me. People
Speaker 9: obviously prosecuting people for this.
Speaker 2: What Emily is talking about is image based sexual abuse,
Speaker 2: when someone shares explicit photos or videos of another person,
Speaker 2: often online, without their consent.
Speaker 9: He probably thought I was never going to see this.
Speaker 9: I'm so angry. I'd like unlost for words.
Speaker 4: Would you like to see him prosecuted.
Speaker 9: I would if I had a chance, I would happily
Speaker 9: stand up in a court and tear him to shreds.
Speaker 4: Because I know there's people who back me up.
Speaker 1: It's not just me.
Speaker 2: Could some of what Louise has been doing be image
Speaker 2: based sexual abuse? I want to understand whether Emily, who
Speaker 2: says she never signed a release, and some of the
Speaker 2: other models could have a case against Luise if they
Speaker 2: never gave legal consent. So I go with my producer
Speaker 2: Eleanor and Emily to meet a legal expert, water or anything.
Speaker 1: My name is hans A Charinka. I am a lawyer
Speaker 1: both here in England and Wales and in California. I
Speaker 1: work at a law firm called McAllister Olivarius, which specializes
Speaker 1: in representing victims of discrimination, harassment and image based sexual abuse.
Speaker 2: While we're getting the microphone set up, Hansa explains that
Speaker 2: he isn't acting as Emily's lawyer. He can only give
Speaker 2: us general advice based on his experience working with victims.
Speaker 2: Emily explains her story.
Speaker 7: I was given an opportunity to work with a photographer
Speaker 7: who was well known in the UK and America, along
Speaker 7: with a lot of other girls.
Speaker 2: She tells Hansa about the level pushing on her, shoet
Speaker 2: with Luis, that she didn't sign a release form, and
Speaker 2: how she's found out that he's shared a sexually explicit
Speaker 2: video of her from twenty twenty on his Patreon account.
Speaker 2: Hansa says that the laws dealing with image based sexual
Speaker 2: abuse are complex.
Speaker 1: There's a patchwork of legislation and court made laws that
Speaker 1: kind of define the legal parameters of this situation. It
Speaker 1: doesn't cover the taking of the photographs, it doesn't cover
Speaker 1: the retention of those photographs, and it only covers distribution
Speaker 1: of those images with the intent to cause the victim distress.
Speaker 2: Basically, to make a case for image based sexual abuse,
Speaker 2: Emily would need to prove that the video was shared
Speaker 2: without her consent and with an intent to cause her harm.
Speaker 2: But Hansa says intent is a very difficult thing to
Speaker 2: prove in a courtroom.
Speaker 1: Sometimes a perpetrator in their defense say, oh, I didn't
Speaker 1: do it to cause her distress. I just did it
Speaker 1: to show off to my mates that I had sex
Speaker 1: with a hot girl. I didn't. Oh gosh, the last
Speaker 1: thing I would want to do is to cause her distress.
Speaker 2: The laws in the UK did change recently. They were
Speaker 2: actually strengthened in January twenty twenty four. You now no
Speaker 2: longer need to prove that the perpetrator intended to cause
Speaker 2: you harm. But the new laws only apply to offenses
Speaker 2: since January, so they're no help to Emily. And to
Speaker 2: further complicate things, Luis is a US citizen living outside
Speaker 2: of the UK and so it'd be tricky to prosecute
Speaker 2: him under UK law anyway.
Speaker 1: It is very common in my experience for victims of
Speaker 1: image based sexual abuse to find very little by way
Speaker 1: of legal recourse where they're in a different country from
Speaker 1: the perpetrator, and so the law still has a lot
Speaker 1: of catching up to do in terms of how to
Speaker 1: tackle internet crimes or crimes and civil wrongs that have
Speaker 1: an online aspect.
Speaker 2: What needs to change do you think for women like
Speaker 2: Emily to be able to see justice more easily.
Speaker 1: A whole lot of things, to name a few. I
Speaker 1: think that there needs to be greater awareness of the
Speaker 1: problem as a whole, of the specifics of the types
Speaker 1: of challenges that sex workers face, the sort of abuse
Speaker 1: that can happen in those circumstances, how deep seated shaming
Speaker 1: of the sex industry can result in very real barriers
Speaker 1: to justice. I think the police need to be better
Speaker 1: resourced and better trained with not just their handling of
Speaker 1: sexual crimes, but also of their handling of online crimes
Speaker 1: and online evidence.
Speaker 2: So many of the cases reported to the police eventually
Speaker 2: get dropped. In fact, between twenty fifteen and twenty twenty
Speaker 2: one in England and Wales, more than a third of
Speaker 2: image based sexual abuse cases were dropped by the victims themselves.
Speaker 2: Only six point two percent led to a suspect charged
Speaker 2: or summoned to court. So Hansa says that for some
Speaker 2: victims pursuing justice in the courts isn't the best way forward.
Speaker 1: I have advice people do not pursue legal recourse in
Speaker 1: the past. It's difficult advice to give because fundamentally, I
Speaker 1: in many of those cases, believe that there should be
Speaker 1: legal recourse for them to pursue. But with the difficulties
Speaker 1: in place, it can be a process that's likely to
Speaker 1: not be successful. The actual reality of seeing a case
Speaker 1: through to trial, it's a hard road. The justice system,
Speaker 1: I would say, by definition, is retriggering of the trauma,
Speaker 1: and I've seen firsthand how traumatic that can be for
Speaker 1: many people to recount the ways that they were sexually
Speaker 1: assaulted or had their most intimate images shared online for
Speaker 1: the whole world to potentially see.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna lie. At this point, everything feels pretty hopeless.
Speaker 2: It seems so hard for Emily and all the other
Speaker 2: models to get legal justice. And even if they sink money,
Speaker 2: time and emotional energy into this, what are the chances
Speaker 2: that would be found guilty when the odds are stacked
Speaker 2: against them? But then Hansa says something that gives me
Speaker 2: an idea.
Speaker 1: There are different parts of justice. Justice is an amorphous term.
Speaker 1: Different people give you different interpretation of what justice means.
Speaker 1: It doesn't always mean going to court.
Speaker 2: So is there a different path to justice here? What
Speaker 2: does Emily want? What would you like to achieve from this?
Speaker 2: So as we come to the end of this investigation,
Speaker 2: is there anything that you're hoping can come from this?
Speaker 7: I would love closure. I would just love even an
Speaker 7: apology for his behavior, for not only to myself, rather
Speaker 7: than just that you've been naughty, slap on the wrist
Speaker 7: of if you go continue doing exactly what you've been
Speaker 7: doing this entire time, there needs to be some consequence.
Speaker 2: And so that's what we set out to do. In
Speaker 2: our final episode. We're going to track down Luis and
Speaker 2: make him face the music coming up on the final
Speaker 2: episode of The Bonnie Trap.
Speaker 4: I'm just hoping that he's not suspicious and that we
Speaker 4: get a meetings up.
Speaker 5: Ah.
Speaker 2: I can't believe that this is all finally happening. Feels
Speaker 2: so so surreal. Thanks to the women who shared their
Speaker 2: stories with us. We contacted Luis Gomez multiple times for comment,
Speaker 2: but we never heard back. He has not been charged
Speaker 2: with any crimes and has presumed innocent under the law.
Speaker 2: We also sought comment from Playboy USA. They declined our
Speaker 2: request for an interview, but stated that they asked their
Speaker 2: licensees to blacklist the photographer mentioned in this series and
Speaker 2: that they prohibit paid to play the practice of charging
Speaker 2: models to appear in magazines. The Bonnie Trap is produced
Speaker 2: by Novel. For more from Novel, visit novel dot Audio.
Speaker 2: The show is hosted by me Ellie Flynn. You can
Speaker 2: find me on social media by searching my name that's
Speaker 2: eble l I E Fly double N. This season is
Speaker 2: produced by Elena Biggs and written by me Ellie Flynn
Speaker 2: and Eleana Biggs. Our assistant producer is Amalia Sortland, with
Speaker 2: additional production from Lee Meyer and Saskia Collette. Additional research
Speaker 2: by Valeria Rocker. The editors are Georgia Moody and Austin Mitchell.
Speaker 2: Our executive producers are Max O'Brien and Craig Strachan. Our
Speaker 2: fact checker is Fendall Fulton. Production management from Scherie Houston
Speaker 2: and Charlotte Wolf. Sound design, mixing and scoring by Daniel
Speaker 2: Kempson and Nicholas Alexander. Music supervision by Nicholas Alexander, Eleanor
Speaker 2: Biggs and Max O'Brien. Original music composed and performed by
Speaker 2: Jake Long, and additional production by Nicholas Alexander, Louisa.
Speaker 4: Gersteine and Daniel Kempson.
Speaker 2: The series artwork was designed by Christina Limcol Willard Foxton,
Speaker 2: its creative director of development.
Speaker 4: Anna was played by Megan Martin
Speaker 1: Novel