BBC has defended its decision to air an interview with Ghislaine Maxwell’s brother Ian Maxwell following her conviction for sex trafficking.
Ghislaine, 60, was found guilty of sex abuse and trafficking of underage girls last month, following a highly-publicised trial in New York. She will face sentencing in June.
On December 31, two days after Ghislaine’s conviction, her brother Ian spoke to Radio 4’s Mishal Husain and defended Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-girlfriend saying she had ‘nothing to do’ with the trafficking.
However, listeners were furious that Radio 4 gave Ian a platform to defend Ghislaine when she had been convicted and found guilty of the crimes.
On Tuesday, the BBC addressed the criticism on its website explaining that they had received complaints from ‘listeners who feel it was inappropriate’ to interview Ian about the case.
Standing by the radio station’s decision, they said in a statement: ‘The BBC has covered the guilty verdict against Ghislaine Maxwell extensively, including interviews with her victims. The decision to interview Ian Maxwell was related to the family’s highly publicised decision to appeal the verdict.
‘For good reason it is unusual to interview the relative of a convicted criminal after the end of a court case, and this was a finely balanced editorial judgement.’
The corporation explained that a ‘a great deal of time was spent deliberating’ on how to conduct the interview, and wanted to ensure it was ‘set within a context’ that didn’t denounce the experiences of Epstein and Maxwell’s survivors.
‘The interview itself robustly challenged the Maxwell family arguments in favour of an appeal; specifically Mishal Husain challenged Ian Maxwell with the individual testimony of each of the four women who were part of the case,’ they said.
‘The interview was preceded by a clip of Annie Farmer, the only one of Maxwell’s victims to speak publicly after the verdict and his arguments were critiqued immediately afterwards by an interview with a barrister who specialises in cases involving abuse and violence against women and girls.’
