John Sweeney ‘cracked up’ after leaving the
BBC when an investigation went bad. He talks about his long obsession with the Maxwells – and the show that relaunched his career
“You can feel sorry for someone,” says John Sweeney, “and still want them to face justice.” He’s talking about Hunting Ghislaine, the compelling podcast in which the investigative reporter unpicks the story of Ghislaine Maxwell, the 58-year-old
British socialite who is currently in jail, awaiting trial for procuring and trafficking underage girls for the late sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein and others. Ghislaine, who denies the charges, faces 35 years in jail if convicted.
Does he think she’s evil? By way of reply, Sweeney tells me that in January he testified against Darko Tasic, the Serbian fighter later jailed for his role in the 1999 massacre of 113 Albanian men and boys in Kosova. “That,” he says, “was evil.”