Add
Private Notes
Cases of 'Rent for Sex' - where landlords offer free rooms in their properties in exchange for 'sexual favours' - are on the increase in the UK. Investigative journalist Ellie Flynn goes undercover to get a closer look at this issue.
Having seen the staggering amount of 'Rent for Sex' adverts that appear unchecked online, Ellie heads out to discover for herself just how genuine these ads are. Armed with undercover cameras, she meets landlords who post these ads to find out what they really expect in exchange for rent.
The landlords she confronts protest that it is a mutually beneficial arrangement. One tells her she can stay in a log cabin he's built in exchange for a “physical arrangement once a week” stating that it's “nothing abnormal, nothing strange” and telling her she has to be able to deal with that or she shouldn't be there. Another tells her the arrangement would be every second day and either oral or penetrative sex. She finds people all over the UK offering accommodation in exchange for sex, one even saying the reason the room has become available is because it belongs to his daughter and she's left to go to University. A prospective landlord also her he's taking the human aspect out of it and treating it like a business transaction whilst others assure her they're just normal guys who just want to help people. All the landlords suggest to Ellie what they're doing is acceptable, but is this how the person taking up the offer would see it? Can it really be consensual when they are preying on vulnerable young people with nowhere else to go?
To find out she tracks down and speaks to young women who have taken up these 'arrangements' and asks them how much 'consent' they felt able to give when the alternative was a life on the streets.
Despite laws that exist to criminalise this practice, Ellie asks why there doesn't seem to be anyone doing anything to prevent it. From police forces to the Ministry of Justice themselves, she uncovers a va
In this episode, Ellie's on the trail of medics who may be wrongly providing botulinum toxin, commonly known as Botox, and the beauticians who either don't know the strict rules or are choosing to ignore them.
Researchers suggest that as many as 100,000 Botox injections are carried out each year in the UK, and campaigners report an astonishing trebling in botched treatments since 2016.
Ellie's investigation takes her all over the UK to visit beauticians who - she discovers - are happy to give her Botox without her having a valid prescription. She has to tread a very fine line to avoid her cover being blown. Some of these beauticians may be connected, and Ellie has to artfully excuse herself during every appointment to avoid the possibility of being injected unlawfully with Botox.
Ellie attends a legitimate Botox Party in Windsor, where the guests receive Botox treatments along with their snacks, party soundtrack, and non-alcoholic champagne. She talks to women in their twenties to find out if Botox really is as essential as getting your nails and hair done.
But as Ellie finds out, like any medical procedure, there are risks and side effects, and getting Botox properly prescribed by a medic after a face to face consultation is important. She speaks to someone who was left physically disfigured and unable to speak, eat, or drink as a result of unlawfully acquired Botox, and goes out in search of a doctor who was struck off and is supplying Botox on the basis of telephone conversations.
In the months leading up to, and days following Ireland’s historic referendum to repeal the eighth amendment, investigative journalist Ellie Flynn follows the story of the landmark vote to legalise abortion.
Journalist Ellie Flynn goes undercover to investigate 'multi-level marketing', an online selling scheme that promises young women the chance to earn big money as 'influencers'.
Reporter Ellie Flynn investigates how thousands of ordinary people and teenagers all across the world are making money from selling their own nude photos and videos.
