Speaker 1: Novel.
Speaker 2: Hey listeners, this is Ellie Flynn.
Speaker 3: Before we get started, I just wanted to let you
Speaker 3: know that this episode contains swearing and explicit sexual language
Speaker 3: and references to graphic allegations, which might be upsetting. It's
Speaker 3: also a story of female empowerment and camaraderie thanks to
Speaker 3: the women who have shared their stories with us. We
Speaker 3: contacted the photographer mentioned in this podcast multiple times for comment,
Speaker 3: but we never heard back. He has not been charged
Speaker 3: with any crimes and is presumed innocent under the law.
Speaker 3: We also contacted Playboy USA. They state that they have
Speaker 3: asked their licensees to blacklist the photographer mentioned in this
Speaker 3: series and that they prohibit paid to play the practice
Speaker 3: of charging models to appear in magazines. Our research into
Speaker 3: his association to Playboy and their statement can be heard
Speaker 3: in episode four.
Speaker 2: So you've got a bit of a camelto going on.
Speaker 2: Every investigative journalist needs her friends.
Speaker 3: Oh god, pretty sultry. It's quite a lot for someone's
Speaker 3: first Instagram post, isn't it.
Speaker 2: Sophie's one of mine. You look on comfort, so get comfy.
Speaker 3: I've known her since we were teenagers. She's my best
Speaker 3: mate from school and we also went to UNI together.
Speaker 3: Back when we were eighteen, are weekends involved heading out
Speaker 3: to clubs slathered in fake tan. Now we're in our thirties,
Speaker 3: things are usually a bit more sedate, except for when
Speaker 3: I ask Sophie to help me with my investigations.
Speaker 1: I get a private message like, please help me. I mean,
Speaker 1: I get raped into things like this all the time.
Speaker 1: Then I say not can I. I guess I'm just
Speaker 1: a good friend, but.
Speaker 3: This is a big ask. Sophie is going to be
Speaker 3: the star of a fake Instagram.
Speaker 2: Profile, boobs out all the time.
Speaker 3: She's posing as a glamor girl, a young muzzel just
Speaker 3: starting out in the industry. We're going to use that
Speaker 3: profile to arrange a meeting with Luis Gomez.
Speaker 1: I feel like, if you guys are gonna catch a
Speaker 1: babby and all that, then it's support him.
Speaker 3: I've packed Sophia disguise, including a long brunette wig.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's definitely not human hair, probably like a
Speaker 2: very dark eyebrow.
Speaker 3: I've also got a few lingerie sets that Emily, one
Speaker 3: of the models who first called out Luis, helped us
Speaker 3: pick out from Primark.
Speaker 4: Everything's pretty lacey, slash shit, I guess that kind of
Speaker 4: shows off a bit about I kind of like it.
Speaker 5: It's quite big.
Speaker 3: See who has size? And then a bottom half that
Speaker 3: side of a din that like the size of prison.
Speaker 3: After settling on a sheer kimono with a song underneath,
Speaker 3: Sophie's ready for lights, camera action. Sexy like fifty year
Speaker 3: old on the beach, like sexy boudoir, someone who's looking
Speaker 3: for a mill.
Speaker 2: I thought this would be a walk in the park.
Speaker 3: It turns out glamor modeling is harder than either of
Speaker 3: us imagined. Okay, and then just put that arm onto
Speaker 3: your head. Yeah, you're like, you're just relaxing. I think
Speaker 3: you need to be a bit more like what am
Speaker 3: on your knees? Yeah, I think maybe that's where we
Speaker 3: need to go. Sophie eases into the shoot and after
Speaker 3: a few awkward.
Speaker 2: Poses, you.
Speaker 5: Get your farm further back on the chair.
Speaker 2: We get the money shot. That's quite sexy. Okay, that's good.
Speaker 3: Next step we need to conceal Sophie's identity. I edit
Speaker 3: her face and body using an app, getting rid of
Speaker 3: identifiers like tattoos. Let me change the color of her
Speaker 3: eyes to start with.
Speaker 2: Okay, so I've gone for a light blue, which is
Speaker 2: not her eye color. Sophie's gone.
Speaker 3: Now she's Jojo Harry, a blue eyed, black haired face
Speaker 3: tuned fem for Tao whose name was inspired by two
Speaker 3: legendary female spies, Josephine Baker and Masa Harri Cool Har.
Speaker 3: We're going to use Jojo to try and confront Luis
Speaker 3: on behalf of Emily and the other models who've spoken out.
Speaker 3: We post a few images and pay a model promoter
Speaker 3: thirty dollars to get a few thousand followers for Jojo,
Speaker 3: and then after years of investigation, it's time.
Speaker 2: Ah.
Speaker 3: I can't believe that this is all finally happening. Fore
Speaker 3: so so surreal. We slide into Luis's DMS.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, He's replied, I'm Ellie Flynn and from
Speaker 2: this team at Novel.
Speaker 3: This is the final episode of The Bunny Trap, Episode seven,
Speaker 3: What Happens in Vegas. It's morning in London and I've
Speaker 3: just woken up to four messages from Luis Gomes.
Speaker 2: He tells Jojo Harri.
Speaker 3: My fake lamb model alias, that he's going to Vegas
Speaker 3: the next day for two weeks of shoots and that she.
Speaker 2: Can join too.
Speaker 3: Okay, so I am sending Luis a message now to
Speaker 3: try and arrange a meeting. So I've said, hey, I'm
Speaker 3: really interested and can be in Vegas next week. It
Speaker 3: feels so much as hinging on his reply to this message,
Speaker 3: part of me is worried that he might get spooped.
Speaker 2: Cent Ah. Just a few hours later, I like your image.
Speaker 6: Let me know if you are interested.
Speaker 2: He has said, Okay, let's do it. He tells me
Speaker 2: his rates for a.
Speaker 6: Shoots two thousand, eight hundred and eighty. This includes the
Speaker 6: production of photoshoot with forty edited photos three thousand, nine
Speaker 6: hundred and eighty. This one includes also a behind the
Speaker 6: sceneslip and for produced clips.
Speaker 3: I'm not clear on what either of these options includes,
Speaker 3: but either way, these prices seem really high. I tell
Speaker 3: him it's too much money. Sure enough, Louise has a solution.
Speaker 6: Depending if we also do full only fans content, I
Speaker 6: can do a discount, so you pay me only one
Speaker 6: two hundred and fifteen.
Speaker 3: I tell Louise I don't do only fans and that
Speaker 3: I can't afford those rates. He drops his price again,
Speaker 3: this time to six hundred and fifty dollars, and then weirdly,
Speaker 3: he offers me a discounted hotel room.
Speaker 6: I have two apartments. I get you one only one
Speaker 6: hundred dollars one for yourself.
Speaker 2: This is bizarre.
Speaker 3: Why does he have two hotel rooms and why is
Speaker 3: he offering one to Jojo. We don't want to pay
Speaker 3: Luise any money for a shoot, and I'm obviously not
Speaker 3: staying in his hotel room, so I ignore the offer.
Speaker 3: But at least I now know where he's staying, the
Speaker 3: Grand View Hotel, Las Vegas, so that's where my producer
Speaker 3: Eleanor and I are headed.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, that's amazing. That is amazing. I can't believe.
Speaker 7: Fuck back.
Speaker 8: Okay, we've got to find out when he can meet,
Speaker 8: but it's on.
Speaker 2: We did it, well done. Were done to Vegas.
Speaker 3: Good morning, It's six thirty am in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Speaker 2: How are you feeling, Yeah, it's all right.
Speaker 3: By the time we can get out to Vegas, Luisa's
Speaker 3: trip is nearly over, So even though we only arrived yesterday,
Speaker 3: we have less than twelve hours before we have to
Speaker 3: be back at the airport for our flight home, and
Speaker 3: in that time we need to find Luise and confront
Speaker 3: him about everything we know. We wrote to Luis about
Speaker 3: a month ago, asking if he would do an interview
Speaker 3: with us and outlining the allegations that we're going to
Speaker 3: be making in the podcast, and we said that, you know,
Speaker 3: we wanted to give him a fair opportunity to respond
Speaker 3: to those accusations. We know he's read it from what
Speaker 3: we can tell from an email tracker that we've got
Speaker 3: multiple times. Actually he's never come back to us, so
Speaker 3: this is that last ditch attempt to hold them accountable.
Speaker 3: I guess the fear is that the weight of your
Speaker 3: investigation and all of the people that you've spoken to,
Speaker 3: rests on it, and I just want to get it right.
Speaker 3: The sun is starting to rise, dusky pink over the
Speaker 3: mountains lining the horizon. We've headed south of the city,
Speaker 3: out towards scrublands on the edge of the desert.
Speaker 2: It's unlike anywhere I've ever been before.
Speaker 3: But right now I'm having a typical American experience. I'm
Speaker 3: at a diner.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm going to just cook that there.
Speaker 3: Elena and I are meeting the security guards will be
Speaker 3: accompanying us on our mission. There are three of them,
Speaker 3: one woman and two men. I can't tell you their
Speaker 3: names to protect their identities. But they're all ex cops.
Speaker 3: Plus this is Vegas, so you know they've seen some shit.
Speaker 9: So I've been and here it was for thirty years,
Speaker 9: so I've worked.
Speaker 10: I've know this town pretty well.
Speaker 3: The ex cops look like a group of middle aged
Speaker 3: mates who've nipped out for an early breakfast. The two
Speaker 3: guys in hoodies and jeans could easily be mistaken for tourists,
Speaker 3: but the female agent it's more glamorous than you'd expect
Speaker 3: for an next cop with bleach blonde hair. The difference
Speaker 3: is these guys are all armed and take their mission
Speaker 3: very seriously. I brief them about Luis over coffee, then
Speaker 3: they get straight to work.
Speaker 11: I will call sexual assault detail here last weeks and.
Speaker 12: Run this by them and consue they have anything in.
Speaker 13: Reference with details like this going to happen.
Speaker 3: So, like I said in the metime, when we arrived
Speaker 3: to scope out Luisa's hotel, we discover our first big problem. Literally,
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just so much bigger than either of
Speaker 3: us anticipated, and I cannot see how three security guards
Speaker 3: are going to mark that whole area. The hotel spreads
Speaker 3: across eight buildings, and some of the buildings have twenty
Speaker 3: one floors. It has more than two thousand rooms. It's
Speaker 3: fucking enormous, and everyone kept saying that it was big,
Speaker 3: and I'd looked at it online, but I thought it
Speaker 3: would all be contained and there would be sort of
Speaker 3: one or a few funnels.
Speaker 2: In and out. But it's not like that at all.
Speaker 3: There is one main entrance and exit where if someone
Speaker 3: was marking that, we would see him driving in or out.
Speaker 2: But there's so much space to.
Speaker 3: Cover and by the time he's in a car, if
Speaker 3: he's driving out, that's no good to us what.
Speaker 5: We're going to do.
Speaker 14: Then.
Speaker 3: I'm an eternal optimist, but looking up at this complex,
Speaker 3: I'm thinking we might be fucked. Being here is feeling really,
Speaker 3: really overwhelming. I'm sort of looking around that we're just
Speaker 3: surrounded by buildings and so many people constantly coming and going.
Speaker 3: Definitely feels like finding him is going to be a
Speaker 3: bit of a needle in a haystack. From Luise telling
Speaker 3: Jojo that he was staying at this resort, the only
Speaker 3: other intelligence we've been able to gather is from his
Speaker 3: Instagram stories. His post suggests that he's been shooting with
Speaker 3: two models all over Vegas. Our biggest clue is a
Speaker 3: video they posted yesterday showing them driving out to the
Speaker 3: canyons in a distinctive white jeep. We do endless laps
Speaker 3: of the hotel car parks, hoping to spot the jeep,
Speaker 3: but no luck. By ten am, three hours later, there's
Speaker 3: still no sign of the car, the models, or Luise.
Speaker 3: The waiting is so intense, but suddenly we get a clue.
Speaker 2: He's just posted an Instagram story.
Speaker 3: I shoot him a message from Drojo's account, telling him
Speaker 3: I'm in Vegas and asking to me to wait and
Speaker 3: hope that he replies to my message. The seconds tick
Speaker 3: by as I wait for him to respond, waiting to
Speaker 3: see if he replies. This message is actual in the
Speaker 3: most tense part, because it's just like, if there's any
Speaker 3: way of pinning him down to a specific location, that's
Speaker 3: going to make our jobs so much easier. So I'm
Speaker 3: just kind of like checking the phone every thirty seconds
Speaker 3: to see if he's replied.
Speaker 2: Oh, he's just like my message. He's just like my message.
Speaker 2: I think he's going to reply. He's just replied. Who's
Speaker 2: replied saying yes we can shoot? Oh my god, Okay,
Speaker 2: so he's still here.
Speaker 6: Here.
Speaker 2: He's just replied, saying yes, we can shoot. Oh my god, okay,
Speaker 2: so what do we do now? Let's wait and see
Speaker 2: what he says. Oh my god, my heart's going it's racing.
Speaker 3: Okay, he replies, but refuses to meet up without payment first.
Speaker 3: But we don't want to hand over any money to Louise.
Speaker 5: He's very hung up on the money.
Speaker 8: Yeah, he's not going to meet us without the money.
Speaker 2: He's not.
Speaker 3: So me and Elena going to overdrive trying to formulate
Speaker 3: a reply while our glamorous ex cop tries to keep
Speaker 3: us calm.
Speaker 2: She knows how to play the game. Don't respond too quickly.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we don't want to see guests for it. And
Speaker 5: when you do reply.
Speaker 15: Brief We wanted to just try to get away from
Speaker 15: getting him back to seeing amount money, try to keep
Speaker 15: him away from that.
Speaker 2: I know he's going to go there.
Speaker 16: Yeah, but as long as we can keep this conversation
Speaker 16: going without getting to that whole money thing.
Speaker 2: My heart is pounding.
Speaker 3: As a type out a reply, we reply now saying
Speaker 3: like what time can you do and like try and
Speaker 3: get some like logistics out of him.
Speaker 2: I just need to like work out timings and location first.
Speaker 3: Saying like Okay, yeah, I think I can maybe make
Speaker 3: two pm work, Like, is it somewhere outside we can
Speaker 3: do and try and get him to send us a.
Speaker 2: Photo of where that could be and see if that
Speaker 2: draws him out to her Pauls. Get some pictures.
Speaker 3: It'll give us like an idea of whereing this resort
Speaker 3: he is. And if we think it's not weird to
Speaker 3: be like, you know what, we're actually nearby, should we
Speaker 3: just like pop in. I think this is it's the
Speaker 3: best shot that we've had so far, off the shot, right, Yeah.
Speaker 16: Okay, I mean just be prepared for Yeah, now let's
Speaker 16: say see some money.
Speaker 2: Sure, how do you feel?
Speaker 3: I feel like a bit more optimistic than I not
Speaker 3: for the rest of the fucking morning.
Speaker 2: I hit send. So what has happened?
Speaker 3: So Luis's replied saying I could do from two o'clock,
Speaker 3: in which case we know he's probably going to be
Speaker 3: here too. Luis has confirmed a time two pm, but
Speaker 3: he still won't tell us where he's shooting until Jojo
Speaker 3: pays a deposit.
Speaker 8: We messaged him as a last stitch attempt to see
Speaker 8: if it would make any difference and if he'd like
Speaker 8: to meet for a drink and he said, Ellie, can
Speaker 8: you read he.
Speaker 3: Said, he said, no, thank you, you take care. I'm
Speaker 3: here for work and to do only paid photo shoot.
Speaker 2: But thank you. You have a good day. Smiley face,
Speaker 2: sorry but not interested. Thanks for contacting me.
Speaker 3: And then we replied with understand, wish you could see,
Speaker 3: but I get it truly lovely picks.
Speaker 2: And some flower emoji, which is a lovely choice. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and he hasn't got back to us yet, so I
Speaker 2: feel like he's not going to meet us.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this conversation is going nowhere. Now we're back to
Speaker 3: plan B, which is sticking out the hotel with our
Speaker 3: security team hoping to catch a glimpse of him and
Speaker 3: then going and was confront him when we do. We're
Speaker 3: going to keep an eye on his social media's. He's
Speaker 3: been posting quite a lot. We know a lot of
Speaker 3: the models that he's been choosing with this week, so
Speaker 3: we're keeping an eye on their profiles as well, just
Speaker 3: to see if we can get any location tags, any
Speaker 3: idea of what he's going to be doing, where he
Speaker 3: might be today.
Speaker 2: And it looks like she's about to bust into tears. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I am nervous. I am nervous.
Speaker 3: And honestly, Eleanor's got good reason to be nervous because
Speaker 3: after the break, the chase is on.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, that looked like him.
Speaker 8: Yeah, fuck okay, shit shit shit, shit shit, he's alone.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he's alone.
Speaker 2: It's really hot now, probably the heat of the day.
Speaker 1: And.
Speaker 2: We're still looking for him.
Speaker 3: I'm sitting in a car with my producer Eleanor. We're
Speaker 3: dripping with sweat. This blistering Nevada heat is really not
Speaker 3: being kind to adrenaline fuel podcasters from London, and we
Speaker 3: know that Luis Gomes is going to be shooting in
Speaker 3: and around Vegas soon, very soon. It feels like the
Speaker 3: pressure is really on now because it feels like we've
Speaker 3: got a very short window. It's now two o'clock nearly,
Speaker 3: so if it gets to like half three four and
Speaker 3: we've not seen him, I think we have to assume
Speaker 3: that we've missed him leaving From an Instagram story, it
Speaker 3: looks like Luis might have been traveling in a white jeep.
Speaker 3: We think our best shot to find him is to
Speaker 3: stake out the car park and hope he drives to
Speaker 3: the shoot. So now all we can do is wait.
Speaker 3: I feel like I'm in an extremely low budget spy movie,
Speaker 3: attempting to look inconspicuous while we try to man as
Speaker 3: many of the hotel exits as we can. Just then,
Speaker 3: a white jeep slides past one of the entrances, and
Speaker 3: just as quickly it slides out of.
Speaker 4: You guys.
Speaker 3: Gets in the car.
Speaker 2: Ellie, that was them.
Speaker 5: There's some tea. We don't put the cart before the horse.
Speaker 8: Okay, okay.
Speaker 2: Our agent gets on the phone to her colleague.
Speaker 7: Wait, jeep four bye, take a look at the mail
Speaker 7: in it. It's a male subject wearing a ball cap.
Speaker 3: And after letting our third and final agent know we're
Speaker 3: on the move, we lose sight of him for a moment.
Speaker 2: But then the jeep comes into vision again.
Speaker 5: Okay, I've got it up front.
Speaker 2: And we're after it.
Speaker 7: This guy, this guy, I think he knows we're following him.
Speaker 3: Poss on its frail. Now you chase the jeep into
Speaker 3: the desert, getting closer.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, that looked like him.
Speaker 5: Yeah, fuck, okay, shit, shit, shit, shit shit.
Speaker 2: He's alone.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he's alone.
Speaker 3: As we gain on him, he's winding and weaving, trying
Speaker 3: to shake us.
Speaker 2: This is Southern tense.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Okay, here's in front of me. I'm just gonna
Speaker 5: pull right up on him. I'm not going to pull
Speaker 5: him over, but I'm gonna pull right up him.
Speaker 3: Suddenly the jeep speed drops. We lurched the side after him.
Speaker 5: Well he's breaking me. Let's see, he's gonna pull over.
Speaker 5: Do you want me tactic?
Speaker 3: I think him just putt's going to see it him?
Speaker 5: You want to see.
Speaker 2: The agent slams on the brakes. No, it's not him,
Speaker 2: it's not him.
Speaker 5: It's not him. Him. How could you tell?
Speaker 2: I could tell.
Speaker 3: I saw his face.
Speaker 13: It's not him.
Speaker 5: She said, it's not him.
Speaker 2: It wasn't Louise in the jeep.
Speaker 3: It was a random man in a baseball cap, looking
Speaker 3: pretty freaked out as a middle aged woman and two
Speaker 3: Brits pulled up beside him with their phones out. I mean,
Speaker 3: he was acting shady. The more he tried to lose us,
Speaker 3: the more certain we became that it was Louise. Turns
Speaker 3: out there was a pretty underwhelming reason why he was
Speaker 3: trying to shake us. Some digging from our agents found
Speaker 3: that he'd been driving with a suspended license plate. No
Speaker 3: wonder he looks so stressed, adrenaline worn off. We're feeling
Speaker 3: pretty gutted. So it is now nearly four o'clock. We
Speaker 3: met the security team at six foot five this morning,
Speaker 3: so it's been like nine hours since we embedded and nothing,
Speaker 3: no sign of him.
Speaker 2: It's so frustrating.
Speaker 3: And then we see that a model Luisa's been shooting
Speaker 3: with has posted on Instagram. Look, she's just uploaded the
Speaker 3: photo with him.
Speaker 5: Is that today?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Just an hour ago?
Speaker 11: Really?
Speaker 8: Are do you recognize that place at all? I think
Speaker 8: we should go to the desert. That's like, the desert
Speaker 8: is a ghost town?
Speaker 2: Ah, it's not the desert, is it.
Speaker 5: Notice there's no hills there on flat land?
Speaker 2: Could it be there? This is a ghost town the vehicles, Oh,
Speaker 2: it could be. It's a long shot.
Speaker 3: But time for one final Hell, Mary, we think they're
Speaker 3: shooting in a ghost town, so we're off to find one.
Speaker 3: After driving up a dirt track, we come across what
Speaker 3: looks like the world's oldest saloon at the foot of
Speaker 3: a hill leading up to Good Springs, Nevada, population one
Speaker 3: hundred and twenty three.
Speaker 2: Now I'm feeling properly on edge. This town is so
Speaker 2: fucking creepy.
Speaker 3: I haven't been a single person is literally like the
Speaker 3: scene of a horror film. How Emma has our investigation
Speaker 3: ended up here in.
Speaker 2: A fucking ghost town at the edge of Nevada.
Speaker 3: It's not what I thought I would be doing when
Speaker 3: I started investigating the glamor industry. There's an irony not
Speaker 3: lost on me or Eleanor that our investigation into the
Speaker 3: least regulated industry we've ever encountered is ending in the
Speaker 3: real wild West. There are tantalizing signs everywhere, including another
Speaker 3: white Jeep, but we know better than to fall for that.
Speaker 2: Twice. We keep hoping Luise.
Speaker 3: Is just around the next corner, but he never is,
Speaker 3: and as we pass yet another rundown building, even our
Speaker 3: hard nosed agents are giving into wishful thinking.
Speaker 5: Do you think anybody is in here?
Speaker 3: Looks like said?
Speaker 5: I was thinking, And I was like, if it's a
Speaker 5: firon apartment.
Speaker 7: I wonder if I showed him the picture and asked
Speaker 7: him if if they would by chance?
Speaker 12: No, I mean, that's one in a billion.
Speaker 5: You're you're real heat, You're.
Speaker 16: Asking though, I'm OK, That's what I did the job
Speaker 16: I always grasped for straws.
Speaker 3: We're about to call it a day when Luise posts
Speaker 3: on Instagram again, Okay, we've got video.
Speaker 2: We've got a video.
Speaker 3: Okay, play out out a lake thing in the background.
Speaker 7: Yeap.
Speaker 3: This time he's out by a big body of water,
Speaker 3: which one of our agents instantly recognizes.
Speaker 9: You know where.
Speaker 5: He said, it's Leap.
Speaker 7: Lake Merom, Lake Mead.
Speaker 5: And then you're you're being good and you'll.
Speaker 7: Be an hour from there back to the airport.
Speaker 5: Ah oh shit.
Speaker 12: And by the time we get there, they could be
Speaker 12: long gone.
Speaker 4: The lake is one hundred and one miles from end
Speaker 4: to end and thirty miles across.
Speaker 12: There's very a little chance we would find him, even
Speaker 12: if we.
Speaker 2: Were there kneeling a haystag.
Speaker 3: This is so hard, this is so odd, and it's
Speaker 3: so frustrating. It's so typical that we now are like,
Speaker 3: we know where he is and it's too late. I
Speaker 3: initially felt like I'd let Emily and all the other
Speaker 3: models down. But what was I really hoping to get
Speaker 3: from that confrontation. We've put detailed allegations to Luise multiple times,
Speaker 3: We've called, emailed, texted. He knows we're making this podcast,
Speaker 3: but he's never responded. That silence speaks volumes to me.
Speaker 3: I'm also far from the first person to try and
Speaker 3: confront Luise. Nearly every model who you've heard in this
Speaker 3: series spoke to him first, and he never took accountability.
Speaker 3: To our knowledge, the only time Luise has addressed the
Speaker 3: British women's allegations of sexual abuse was in an email
Speaker 3: chain from twenty twenty two. It was sent to us
Speaker 3: by another man in the industry, a small time magazine publisher.
Speaker 3: Here's an excerpt from the emails.
Speaker 6: Hello there, my name is Louise Gomez. I want to
Speaker 6: write you because I want to show you that all
Speaker 6: these girls are adults. They do everything because they want,
Speaker 6: so here we go.
Speaker 3: Luise said that anything that happened between him and the
Speaker 3: models was consential. He talks about models sending him explicit
Speaker 3: content as evidence of this consent. But I've seen her
Speaker 3: as receipts. I've heard her account of how he got
Speaker 3: hold of her content by pressuring her and dangling the
Speaker 3: promise of a publication in Playboy in front of her.
Speaker 3: In the email chain I've seen, Luise also shares screenshots
Speaker 3: of conversations with models as evidence of consent. These are
Speaker 3: often from before the shoots took place, and they're frank
Speaker 3: discussions about sex work and OnlyFans and what these models
Speaker 3: do online. Using these messages as evidence of consent for
Speaker 3: alleged abuse makes me feel deeply uneasy. It seems as
Speaker 3: though Luise is using the fact that they do sex
Speaker 3: work as evidence that they were up for anything. This
Speaker 3: makes me realize that any confrontation I might have held
Speaker 3: with Luise in Vegas was not going to bring the
Speaker 3: model's closure. And the more I think about it, the
Speaker 3: less I want this ending to be about Luise at all,
Speaker 3: because platforming bad men is never what this series has
Speaker 3: been about. I want a different resolution, something that makes
Speaker 3: a real difference to the women I've met along this journey,
Speaker 3: and that will hopefully protect more women in the future.
Speaker 3: I turned to Luis's Patreon, the subscription site where he's
Speaker 3: been posting models explicit content online, in some cases despite
Speaker 3: their please not to. For years, that Patreon account has
Speaker 3: haunted models. Photos taken on shoots with Luise, allegedly under
Speaker 3: pressure or alongside sexual abuse have been given a second
Speaker 3: life online, which Luise's thousands of dollars for.
Speaker 12: Hi Allen, I'm Amaya, an assistant producer.
Speaker 3: We get in touch with Patreon to let them know
Speaker 3: about the allegations.
Speaker 2: We've heard about Luise.
Speaker 12: Investigating serious allegations by one glamor photographer. We have been
Speaker 12: informed that this photographer has been using his Patreon account
Speaker 12: to post content of models, including explicit images and videos,
Speaker 12: which he had been sent privately on the condition the
Speaker 12: content was for his eyes only.
Speaker 3: The models claim that Patreon begins an investigation of their own.
Speaker 3: About a month later, Amalia gets an update from Ellen
Speaker 3: sat White, the head of communications and US policy lead
Speaker 3: at Patreon at the time.
Speaker 12: So what can you tell us?
Speaker 13: Yeah, so I can't talk about the specific creator, but
Speaker 13: let me say it in this way. The account was
Speaker 13: removed for violations of our pornography policy.
Speaker 3: Luise's Patreon is down and it's because of us.
Speaker 13: It triggered our review of this creator. Yes, we were
Speaker 13: not aware of it until you reported it to me.
Speaker 13: We removed this creator for having violated our policies regarding
Speaker 13: pornographic content, and this was not their first violation.
Speaker 3: Ellen tells us that Patreon has taken steps to make
Speaker 3: sure that Luis can never bring his account back.
Speaker 17: If they were to launch another account, it would have
Speaker 17: to be substantively different than the account that they have currently.
Speaker 12: So can we then assume that Universe one three seven
Speaker 12: will not make it comeback to Patreon without Patreon's review.
Speaker 5: That's right.
Speaker 12: That makes me.
Speaker 6: That makes me feel really good.
Speaker 3: I can't wait to tell Emily the news. So we
Speaker 3: managed to get his patron removed.
Speaker 14: Yes, yes, Oh my god, Oh I love that.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 14: That's that's so relieving. That's really good.
Speaker 2: That's so it's weird.
Speaker 14: It's like a it's not the outcome necessary that you know,
Speaker 14: you can go to court and you can deal with
Speaker 14: this stuff, but at the end of the day, if
Speaker 14: it's gone, it's gone. It's a huge weight that's been
Speaker 14: lifted knowing that that's not there anymore. And I wouldn't
Speaker 14: have been able to do that myself. So I really
Speaker 14: appreciate that.
Speaker 5: Thank you.
Speaker 3: Speaking to Emily again got me thinking about what justice
Speaker 3: actually means in a world where successful sexual assault prosecutions
Speaker 3: are pathetically low, where sex workers are overlooked and ignored,
Speaker 3: while women are slut shamed and victim blaine over and
Speaker 3: over again. Maybe this podcast in itself is a form
Speaker 3: of justice. That first email I received back in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty tipping me off about this story was sent to
Speaker 3: newspaper desks all over the world, and to my knowledge,
Speaker 3: I was the only person who responded, which unfortunately isn't
Speaker 3: surprising to me. After all, when was the last time
Speaker 3: you heard a mainstream media story from a sex worker's perspective.
Speaker 3: I can't help thinking that if these women worked in
Speaker 3: a different industry, more people would have listened. Sex workers
Speaker 3: and glamor models are no less deserving of our care
Speaker 3: than anyone else. They also need respect, boundaries, and understanding.
Speaker 2: In fact, they might need it more.
Speaker 14: People need to realize that just because we're models or
Speaker 14: glamor models, or happy to do topless or nude shoots,
Speaker 14: it doesn't matter any type of photography, that it's not
Speaker 14: a free pass for you to touch us, breathe on us,
Speaker 14: get within an inch of our bodies.
Speaker 2: I catch up with Herrah one last time too.
Speaker 18: I'm so grateful that you've listened, and yeah, you took
Speaker 18: it on board, and that you guys have been doing
Speaker 18: so much because.
Speaker 2: It's not just him.
Speaker 18: This could open people's eyes up to other photographers. You know,
Speaker 18: this could have like a ripple effect. People might speak
Speaker 18: out more about it.
Speaker 2: I hope so.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, the story is always felt important to me,
Speaker 3: and I think people will listen, and I hope it
Speaker 3: does change things, and that is what I want from this.
Speaker 3: This series has always been about the models and for
Speaker 3: the models, so I'd like to hand over these final
Speaker 3: moments to some of the women at the heart of
Speaker 3: this story who bravely shared their experiences in the hopes
Speaker 3: that it might make the glamour industry safer for everyone.
Speaker 2: What would I like to say to Luis.
Speaker 11: Definitely he opened my eyes to the dark side of
Speaker 11: the industry that I didn't know was a thing really
Speaker 11: until then. Thank you for ruining my life at the time,
Speaker 11: but Ressis Shark, you haven't ruined it in the long run.
Speaker 11: Thanks for making me a stronger person.
Speaker 18: I actually have nothing. I have nothing to say to him,
Speaker 18: not a single thing.
Speaker 14: I hope you realize this one day, the negative impact
Speaker 14: that he's having on young women in this industry, and
Speaker 14: hopefully he stops doing it. And if this podcast manages
Speaker 14: to reach him in some way, then I hope he
Speaker 14: takes it all on board, and I hope he is
Speaker 14: apologetic and remorseful for everything that he's put everyone through.
Speaker 11: He seems to have got away with too much, so
Speaker 11: I hope he's calmer catches up to him soon.
Speaker 10: I am so grateful.
Speaker 14: For all the girls that have come forward and been vulnerable,
Speaker 14: including myself. I'm proud of myself for talking through everything.
Speaker 10: It's still very vivid to.
Speaker 14: Me, everything that had happened. I could recount the entire
Speaker 14: thing over and either again. It's not something that I've forgotten.
Speaker 14: All that's diminished of gone over the time, and I
Speaker 14: can only think, if that's happened with how I feel,
Speaker 14: then I'm sure it's the same for the other girlies.
Speaker 10: Knowing that we're all in this together and having a
Speaker 10: community of understanding and supporting and helping and lifting each
Speaker 10: other up and growing with each other means the world
Speaker 10: to me. I believe every woman on this planet Earth
Speaker 10: needs embracing, brave, understanding and supportive women around them.
Speaker 4: Women support each other and we lean on each other.
Speaker 4: We're our soulmates and we're our cheerleaders. Women supporting women
Speaker 4: will actually change the world.
Speaker 11: What are you up to now?
Speaker 2: So my life has totally changed.
Speaker 11: I have just been actually blessed with the best gift
Speaker 11: I've ever had and became a mom, and I can't
Speaker 11: wait to just continue loving her protecting her. So right
Speaker 11: now in life, I'm in such a good place.
Speaker 9: I'm now a videographer and photographer for female content creators
Speaker 9: in the adult industry. I provide that safe space for
Speaker 9: them that I didn't have back then.
Speaker 14: I'm going to be walking in Miami Swim Week, which
Speaker 14: is an amazing opportunity. I never thought I would have
Speaker 14: the confidence to do that or be in front of
Speaker 14: photographers and stuff.
Speaker 10: Again, I am thriving in my life. I'm learning, I'm evolving.
Speaker 14: What do I want people to take away from hearing
Speaker 14: these stories?
Speaker 10: For people to get a reality check on what the
Speaker 10: modeling industry really is.
Speaker 4: You know, there's a lot of evil and darkness in
Speaker 4: the industry, and that darkness is being brought into the
Speaker 4: light and exposed.
Speaker 11: I got taught to be quiet, keep your mouth shut.
Speaker 11: If you see something, it's you that's going to look
Speaker 11: like the bad person.
Speaker 2: No one's going to believe you.
Speaker 11: And that's what people do to try and keep people silenced.
Speaker 11: If anything does, ever, haven't you just know that there
Speaker 11: is people out there and there is support.
Speaker 13: Don't think you have.
Speaker 11: To do something just to get to where you want
Speaker 11: to be. If it doesn't feel right, listen to your
Speaker 11: heart and don't feel pressured, because the right opportunities are
Speaker 11: always come back around.
Speaker 14: I just hope people are a little bit more open minded.
Speaker 14: When you see a model's photo, you wonder, actually, did
Speaker 14: you have a nice time.
Speaker 2: At that shoot?
Speaker 10: Was she okay at that shoot?
Speaker 12: You never know.
Speaker 14: We are glamor models first and foremost some of us,
Speaker 14: do you only fans? Yes, we do consent to being
Speaker 14: seen nude or in lingerie or scantily clad, and that's
Speaker 14: absolutely fine.
Speaker 4: That doesn't mean that we are deserving.
Speaker 14: Of sexual assault. We are not here to be exploited
Speaker 14: for our content. We are not just objects of sexual desire.
Speaker 14: We are human beings. We deserve respect the same as
Speaker 14: anybody else would. I feel a bit of closure.
Speaker 11: I feel like I can finally start closing the doors
Speaker 11: on what happened was and help empower myself to feeling
Speaker 11: like it wasn't my fault. Also feel very empowered that
Speaker 11: the podcast has gone out. This is all ever wanted
Speaker 11: and more for it all to come out and to
Speaker 11: spread awareness.
Speaker 9: If this helps just one person, I'd be happy.
Speaker 3: We contacted Luis Gomez multiple times for comment, but we
Speaker 3: never heard back. He has not been charged with any
Speaker 3: crimes and is presumed innocent under the law. We also
Speaker 3: saw a comment from Playboy USA. They declined our request
Speaker 3: for an interview, but stay that they asked their licensees
Speaker 3: to blacklist the photographer mentioned in this series and that
Speaker 3: they prohibit paid to play the practice of charging models
Speaker 3: to appear in magazines. The Bonnie Trap is produced by Novel.
Speaker 3: For more from Novel visit novel dot Audio. The show
Speaker 3: is hosted by me Ellie Flynn. You can find me
Speaker 3: on social media by searching my name that's eb l
Speaker 3: i E Fly double n. This season is produced by
Speaker 3: Eleanor Biggs and written by me Ellie Flynn and Eleana Biggs.
Speaker 3: Our assistant producer is Amalia Sortland, with additional production from
Speaker 3: Lee Meyer and Saskia Collette. Additional research by Valeria Rocker.
Speaker 3: The editors are Georgia Moody and Austin Mitchell. Our executive
Speaker 3: producers are Max O'Brien and Craig Strachan. Our fact checker
Speaker 3: is Fendall Fulton. Production management from Scherie Houston and Charlotte Wolf.
Speaker 3: Sound design, mixing and scoring by Daniel Kempt and Nicholas Alexander.
Speaker 3: Music supervision by Nicholas Alexander, Elena Biggs and Max O'Brien.
Speaker 3: Original music composed and performed by Jake Long, and additional
Speaker 3: production by Nicholas Alexander, Louisa Gerstein, and Daniel Kempson. The
Speaker 3: series artwork was designed by Christina Limcole. Willard Foxtons, Creative
Speaker 3: Director of Development. Izzy was played by Flora and Claire.
Speaker 3: Luis Gomeres was played by Juan Solari. Special thanks to
Speaker 3: the following people to Colleague's past and present who have
Speaker 3: helped bring this story to life. Anna Sinfield, Joe Wheeler,
Speaker 3: Jakob Tirevich, David Waters, Naomi Clark, Laura Zailli, Robbie mckinnis,
Speaker 3: Frankie Nichols, Julia Bromberg, Harry Cook, Mice, Lee Raw, Tom Wright,
Speaker 3: Sasha Baker, John Joe Devlin, Vanessa Silva, Anna piel Mazzini,
Speaker 3: and other journalists we've worked with who wished to remain anonymous,
Speaker 3: to the legal and security teams we've worked with who
Speaker 3: have helped keep us safe while reporting on this story,
Speaker 3: as well as our production psychologist, Charlotte Armitage. Finally, telling
Speaker 3: a story like this would be impossible without the trust
Speaker 3: and bravery of the people at its heart. So a
Speaker 3: massive thanks to the women who shared their stories with
Speaker 3: us and the many anonymous sources who provided invaluable information, help,
Speaker 3: knowledge and insight. This would not have been possible without you.
Speaker 1: Novel