Reporter who exposed Magaluf’s dark side says she was victim-blamed after C4 film – asking ‘Would it take me being sexually assaulted on camera for them to believe me?’
An investigative journalist who posed as a drunk reveller to expose the ‘predatory underbelly’ of Magaluf for a Channel 4 documentary says she’s experienced victim-blaming since the film aired.
Ellie Flynn’s film Magaluf Undercover: Predators and Parties, released in October, saw her going undercover, pretending to be drunk and alone on a beach in the popular Mallorcan nightspot.
In one particularly disturbing scene, she was seen being approached by local men on a beach as she pretended to be passed out on a sun-lounger.
After various interactions, including with a man who asked her if she wanted to ‘kiss a little’, Flynn eventually alerted her nearby camera crew, fearing for her personal safety.
The clip of the scene has since been viewed hundreds of thousands of times across social media. Flynn, speaking to Marie Claire this week, says it has been hard to read the comments, which have victim-shamed her, doubted her story and accused her of ‘recording and setting people up.’
On YouTube, there are countless comments suggesting that ‘women shouldn’t drink’ if they want to avoid such scenarios.
One person wrote: ‘I don’t know why women think it’s safe to drink excessively like this.’
Another added: ‘Girls, just don’t go to these places. Don’t drink.’
‘Maybe you should stop teaching youth to drink alcohol to ruin their brains and risk their safety all the time’, another added.
Flynn told the publication that for some people who’d watched it, ‘it would take me being sexually assaulted on camera for them to believe it’.
Journalist Ellie Flynn went undercover for C4 film ‘Magaluf Undercover: Predators and Parties’, which aired in October, to expose the ‘predatory underbelly’ of the Majorcan tourist hotspot – she says while there have been many positive comments, she’s also been ‘victim-shamed’
In one scene from the documentary, a man tells her ‘it’s my last chance’ and asks if she wants to ‘kiss a little bit’ as she lies slumped on the lounger – she says many comments have victim-blamed her, suggesting women shouldn’t drink and ‘beware of your surroundings’
Many of the comments left reacting to Flynn’s film suggested that she was at fault for appearing drunk to the men who preyed on her
The journalist said: ‘I am putting my personal safety at risk every time I do this.
‘I do push it to a point where I’m feeling really afraid, but I let things go quite far because I think it’s important journalistically to prove that intent.’
She added: ‘It’s like, well, what do you want from me; what do you actually want to happen to me – what is gonna make you believe that this is real?’
In the footage that has sparked some of the biggest reaction, a man is seen walking over to Flynn, who buries her face in her hands in an attempt to seem drunk.
‘Hey, are you good? Sorry, are you good?’, he asks Flynn as he leans over her.
Shocking footage showed how a group of men shamelessly preyed on Ellie and tried to take advantage of her
The journalist fled the beach ‘shaking and upset’ after the incident – but says the reaction to the clip that’s gone viral on social media left her shocked
The reporter proceeds to tell him she is fine, but instead of leaving her to it, he asks her if she wants ‘to talk a little bit’.
The interaction takes a dark turn when Flynn shakes her head no, to which the man responds: ‘You are my last chance. Do you want to kiss a little bit?’.
She tells him no again, and the man appears to leave.
He proceeds to go up to another man and lets him know that ‘she’s completely wasted’, to which his friend responds: ‘Let’s go for it! Let’s go for it’.
The friend now approaches Flynn himself, who continues to pretend that she is intoxicated.
‘If you want, I can keep you company’, he tells Flynn as he sits down next to her on the lounger. ‘Where are you from?’, he asks.
In this moment, however, the journalist is forced to stand up, explaining in her narration of the film how she felt ‘genuinely scared’, despite having a camera crew and security watching her.
She can be seen signalling for help, and a female security guard comes to her rescue. ‘Sorry, that just scared me…I didn’t see him coming’, a now relieved Ellie tells her.
Things take a dark turn when a man asks a seemingly intoxicated Ellie: ‘Do you want to kiss a little bit?’
The man that first approached Ellie goes up to his friend and informs him she is drunk. ‘Let’s go for it!’, his friend responds, before he approaches Ellie himself
The second man approaches Ellie and sits next to her on the lounger – a moment that she later said left her feeling frightened
Ellie is then forced to signal for help from a female security guard who was on standby
In an article for Mail+ in October, Flynn revealed that she had fled the beach ‘shaking and upset, all too aware that had I really been out of it and alone, without my security and TV crew, anything could have happened.’
She added that while filming for three days in the resort she had been ‘repeatedly propositioned by men whilst appearing as though I was out of it.
‘Not to mention groped and leered at in the various clubs and bars. But this particular incident stands out as the most threatening.’
UNTOLD: Magaluf Undercover – Predators & Parties is available to stream on Channel 4 and YouTube.
