Warning: This article contains discussion of sexual assault which some readers may find distressing.
An undercover journalist who visited Magaluf beach as an undercover ‘drunk’ party-goer has explained why she ended one specific part of the operation after a man was filmed saying ‘let’s go for it’.
Ellie Flynn, a journalist who’s created several documentaries in which she goes undercover, has produced a new documentary called Magaluf Undercover: Predators and Parties.
The documentary sheds light on the number of women that get harassed on holiday overseas (Channel 4)
As part of the documentary, they organised a survey of young people who visited the island, which is well-known for its party culture.
Shockingly, almost a quarter of those surveyed said they had experienced sexual assault.
Horrifying clip of a man saying ‘let’s go for it’ after finding her ‘wasted’
One particular clip from the documentary has gone viral this week.
Flynn travelled the Magaluf strip and beach throughout the time she spent there pretending to be ‘drunk’, filming how men would act when finding a drunk woman by themselves.
In the clip in question, she sat while clearly ‘drunk’ on a sun lounger by the beach, and multiple men go up to her.
A man goes up to her and says she is his ‘last chance’, before saying: “Do you want to kiss a little bit?”
One in particular goes back to his friend and says ‘let’s go for it’ after being told that she is ‘completely wasted’.
In the clip, Flynn describes why she had to call the undercover work early there, with security coming over to take her away from the situation.
Flynn stated in the documentary that while she was aware of the first two men who came over to her, when a third from the same group came to speak to her, she was shocked, having not realised he was there.
Why the undercover operation was called off
In an exclusive interview with LADbible, she said regarding the clip: “It just really, really startled me, because I couldn’t see where the first two had gone.
“I didn’t know if they were behind me. I didn’t know if they were all surrounding me. It’s really, really dark. You can’t really see anything on that beach.
“There’s no lights, you know, there’s no lights in that area. All of a sudden it just felt like I was outnumbered.”
She went on to say that it was the scariest experience on a trip, where she was sexually harassed multiple times.
One of the men came up to her and asked to ‘kiss a little bit’ (Channel 4)
“Even though I’ve got a security, even though I’ve got a crew around me, to feel like there are potentially three men working together surrounding you, it makes you feel so vulnerable, and it’s really, really intimidating.
“So that was why I, you know, got up and called it off straight away”.
Where Ellie’s red lines were while filming
Later in the interview, Flynn stated that she had long discussions with the production crew regarding her ‘red lines’ while undercover, and that these included anyone touching her in a situation where she couldn’t get away, or if she was pinned down at any point.
If any of these were crossed, security watching from afar would step in immediately
Outside of that, it was entirely up to her, using signals such as suddenly standing up to let security know she wanted them to intervene.
While it was difficult for security to ignore instincts to intervene, she said it was essential to ‘be sure what people’s intents are’.
She said: “It did have to be up to me in the end to say where I felt comfortable and where I felt like a line had been crossed, or where I wanted something to end so that last day, the signal was just for me to stand up.
“If I stood up at all, I had a word that I could say if I wasn’t able to stand up, and that was what I did as soon as I as soon as I couldn’t see where the other two men were and I didn’t know how many of them were around me, I just stood up straight away.”
Magaluf Undercover: Predators and Parties is available on YouTube here.
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone in confidence, contact The Survivors Trust for free on 08088 010 818, available 10am-12.30pm, 1.30pm-3pm and 6pm-8pm Monday to Thursday, 10am-12.30pm and 1.30pm-3pm on Fridays, 10am-12.30pm on Saturdays and 6pm-8pm on Sundays.
