Today in Focus What the Epstein case teaches us about grooming
4 snips
Mar 23, 2026 
Lucia Osborne-Crowley, legal journalist and author who has reported on Epstein and Maxwell and speaks from personal experience of grooming. She explores how predators identify and isolate vulnerable young people. She describes staged trust-building, normalising sexual contact, coerced recruiting and the network of adult complicity. She also discusses missing documents, courtroom trauma and survivors driving change.
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Sleepless Courtroom Vigil To Witness Justice
- Lucia Osborne-Crowley slept outside a Manhattan courthouse from 2:30am to secure one of four seats to cover Ghislaine Maxwell's trial.
- She endured freezing weather, snow and hostile security while committing to witness survivors' courtroom testimony firsthand.
Chosen Child Dynamic That Enables Abuse
- Lucia describes being chosen by a coach at nine and how attention became love, creating an emotional bond used to control her.
- She recalls praise, threats of punishment and the confusing flip from affection to anger that trapped her psychologically.
Grooming As A Staged Access Plan
- Grooming is a staged process aimed at getting total access by identifying vulnerability, isolating the child and building trust.
- Epstein and Maxwell targeted children with unmet emotional or financial needs, then used attention and promises to create attachment.
