The Spectator And Ghislaine Maxwell

Many of today’s papers splash the lurid details of “socialite” Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of the late and disgraced Captain Bob, getting guilty on sufficient sex trafficking charges to mean she may spend the rest of her life in jail. Ms Maxwell, it seems, worked very closely indeed with the late Jeffrey Epstein, who took his own life rather than face trial.

Ghislaine Maxwell

But while the Times, Mail, Mirror, Telegraph and Express are unequivocal in their painting of Ms Maxwell as A Very Bad Person Indeed - with some titles hinting that Prince Andrew may be, shall we say, perspiring gently as a result of the verdict - one publication may be finding itself in one of those Very Difficult Positions this morning.

And that publication is the increasingly alt-right Spectator magazine, where editor Fraser Nelson may need to do rather better than put on his faux-posh sneer and claim that it’s just “something on Twitter”. Because the Speccy has been running a whole series of articles telling readers that Ghislaine Maxwell was not such a bad person after all.

Almost as soon as Ms Maxwell got herself nicked Stateside, the excuse notes arrived, not least one from July last year by one Alan Dershowitz, who has, shall we say, more than a passing interest in Epstein’s ex getting guilty: one of Epstein’s underage victims swore an affidavit in which she accused The Great Man of rape. A variety of lawsuits followed.

Under the headline “The Ghislaine Maxwell I know”, Dershowitz asserts “My wife and I were introduced to Ghislaine Maxwell by Sir Evelyn and Lady Lynne de Rothschild, and we subsequently met her on several occasions - generally in the presence of prominent people such as Bill and Hillary Clinton, Nobel Prize-winning scientists, presidents of universities, and prominent academic and business people. We never saw her do anything inappropriate. We knew her only as Jeffrey Epstein’s thirty-something girlfriend”.

Fraser Nelson, editor, the Spectator

He then puts the boot into Virginia Guiffre, accuser of Epstein, Ms Maxwell, Prince Andrew, and indeed Dershowitz himself. Then, the following month, the Spectator ran another “The Ghislaine Maxwell I knew”, this time by Nicholas Coleridge, who asserted “I have known Ghislaine Maxwell for more than 40 years, since she was a student at Balliol. I always liked her, everyone did, and I find it hard to reconcile the Ghislaine I knew with the heinous crimes of which she now stands accused”. So that’s all right, then.

Then, only last month, came an Oh What A Giveaway moment from Rachel Johnson, sister of our alleged Prime Minister, who told Spectator readers “It’s hard not to pity Ghislaine Maxwell”. Why so? “I intersected briefly with her at Oxford. As a fresher I wandered into Balliol JCR one day in search of its subsidised breakfast granola-and-Nescafé offering and found a shiny glamazon with naughty eyes holding court astride a table, a high-heeled boot resting on my brother Boris’s thigh”.

So when our free and fearless press summons sufficient courage, they might ask Bozo what he knows about Ms Maxwell and her circle of friends. Meanwhile, the Speccy has also been giving a platform to Ian Maxwell, and yes he is a relation. He’s Ghislaine Maxwell’s brother, letting Speccy readers know what “The Truth” really is.

Of course, if Ghislaine Maxwell now sings as part of a post-conviction plea bargain, we will discover the truth sooner rather than later. And so will readers of the Spectator.