Epstein investigator tracked down and assaulted by mystery man: report

A British journalist who had investigated Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell for years revealed that she had been tracked down by a supposed private investigator while in public, bribed with drugs and cash and then sexually assaulted, The Guardian exclusively reported Monday.

That journalist was Lucia Osborne-Crowley, who in 2024 published “The Lasting Harm,” a behind-the-scenes account of Maxwell’s 2021 trial on sex-trafficking charges, including exclusive interviews with alleged victims of Epstein and Maxwell.

It was in September of 2022, Osborne-Crowley told The Guardian, that she flew to Miami, Florida to meet with and interview Carolyn Andriano, a victim whose testimony helped secure Maxwell’s conviction.

The two met at a restaurant in West Palm Beach, during which Andriano told Osborne-Crowley that she had recently been visited by a supposed private investigator appearing to be in his 60s who “had heard she was talking to someone about a book,” The Guardian reported.

After the meeting, it was then that Osborne-Crowley was approached by a stranger in the restaurant, whom she described as a man in his 60s.

“What was she writing, he wanted to know,” The Guardian reported. “He offered her drugs, cash and a meeting with one of Epstein’s pilots, then put his hands under her skirt. When the manager asked him to leave, he waited in the car park; Osborne-Crowley had to escape through a staff exit.”

The bizarre encounter bears hallmarks of other stories shared by those either investigating or alleged victims of Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation, with 28 alleged Epstein survivors having signed onto a statement that they had all received death threats. Prominent Epstein investigator Julie K. Brown appeared to have also been monitored amid her investigations into Epstein.

Andriano would ultimately die by overdose in 2023, but before her passing, provided key details in the trial against Maxwell that helped secure her 20-year prison sentence. Andriano also recounted witnessing Virginia Giuffre working for Epstein, another prominent Epstein survivor who died by suicide last year.