‘The Lasting Harm’: Giving a voice to those less powerful

By Lucia Osborne-Crowley

"Journalism is about giving a voice to the powerless” - Julie K Brown

Indeed, this is precisely what Osborne-Crowley does in this powerfully unsettling account of Ghislaine Maxwell's trial.

Within the opening pages, the reader is told that this story is not about Ghislaine Maxwell, but about the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse. And, it becomes evident later on, it is about the reader. Dark parallels are drawn, forcing the reader to confront questions of bias in the dialogue of sexual assault trials. 

“Yes, I am biased,” writes Osborne-Crowley. “Everybody is, whether we own it or not." 

Lucia Osborne-Crowley interweaves her own experience of abuse and rape with the survivors'. She poses uncomfortable and stirring questions to the reader. If her experience makes her biased, then doesn't someone's lack of experience makes them biased too? How can we empathise with something we have never experienced? How can we objectively judge something we have experienced? If experience constitutes bias, then we can argue that everyone is biased to an extent. 

By drawing on her own haunting experiences, Osborne-Crowley critiques the current criminal justice system and it's handling of sexual assault cases with passionate rigour. She tells us her story with a certain candour that is brave, and rare. She allows us, the reader, into the lives of the survivors. Most importantly, though, she makes the Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell case about the right people - the survivors. 

This book is as uncomfortable as it is powerful. It is unapologetic, uncompromising, and incredibly necessary.

Many thanks to 4th Estate Books for this copy