The media exposes a scandal. A network of rich, powerful men are abusing teenage girls. Outrage spreads fast and the public demands that authorities reveal the evidence and bring the perpetrators to justice. Yet the system shields many of those involved and few face serious consequences.
This is not about Jeffrey Epstein. It is a scandal that unfolded in Victorian London in 1885 — and the parallels with the present are uncomfortable enough to warrant careful attention. Brighton, as one of Victorian Britain’s most socially progressive cities and a frequent destination of the Prince of Wales himself, was never far from the world these events exposed. The history of Brighton and Hove runs through this period in ways that make this story closer to home than it might first appear.
The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon
In July 1885 a series of newspaper articles appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette under the headline The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon. Written by editor W.T. Stead following an undercover investigation carried out alongside feminist campaigner Josephine Butler and leading Salvation Army members, the articles exposed the systematic abuse and trafficking of young girls in London’s brothels.
The investigation was extraordinary in its methods. Stead visited brothels, rescue homes and every institution connected to the trade. He even arranged the purchase of a 13-year-old girl named Eliza Armstrong and had her transported to France — in the Salvation Army’s care — to prove that such trafficking was not only possible but routine. Butler wrote to a friend: “O! What horrors we have seen.”
The articles described the entire industrial apparatus of exploitation in forensic detail — procurers, brothel-keepers, doctors who certified virginity and midwives who treated the girls afterwards. The series was syndicated around the world as “the London scandal.” People speculated openly on the identities of the men described. Named among the clients of the notorious brothel madam Mrs Jeffries were MPs, Lords, Dukes, the Prince of Wales and King Leopold II of Belgium.
Parliament Is Forced to Act
The public response was immediate and overwhelming. Parliament was inundated with petitions. A mass demonstration took place in Hyde Park. MPs who had for years blocked legislation raising the age of consent — some, according to persistent rumours among campaigners, because they were personally implicated — could no longer hold the line.
By August 1885, Parliament had passed the Criminal Law Amendment Act. The age at which girls could consent to sexual intercourse was raised from 13 to 16. New offences of procurement and brothel-keeping were introduced. The legislation was rushed and, in some respects, deeply flawed. Provisions that criminalised women who shared premises for their own safety — making them liable for brothel-keeping — remain on the statute books today.
A late amendment introduced by MP Henry Labouchere outlawed all consensual sexual activity between men. That amendment was used to convict Oscar Wilde a decade later — a reminder that moral panics produce legislation with consequences their architects neither intended nor foresaw.
The Establishment Closes Ranks
What happened next followed a pattern that anyone familiar with the Epstein case will recognise. The journalist who exposed the scandal went to prison. The powerful men implicated faced no consequences.
Stead and several colleagues were convicted of kidnapping Eliza Armstrong — technically accurate, as they had not obtained her mother’s proper consent for the investigation — and imprisoned. Mrs Jeffries, the brothel madam whose client list included some of the most prominent men in Victorian Britain, pleaded guilty mid-trial before her clientele could be named in open court. She was fined. Not imprisoned. Her clients were never prosecuted.
The Victorian police had been paid to look the other way. One officer who refused was constructively dismissed. Earlier in 1885, campaigners had brought a private prosecution against Mrs Jeffries precisely because the police would not. The judge repeatedly reminded witnesses not to name clients during proceedings.
Of the leading figures exposed in the Maiden Tribute, the only person who ended up in jail was a woman.
The Lessons That Did Not Take
The researchers whose work this article draws on — Claire Cunnington of the University of Sheffield and Caroline Derry of the Open University — identify three lessons from 1885 that apply with equal force today.
First, some very influential people do not want child sexual exploitation eradicated, making effective reform difficult to achieve. It was only through sustained public pressure that new laws were passed in 1885 — and even then, the legislation was shaped by the same elite interests it was meant to constrain.
Second, victims are too easily blamed, ignored or politically exploited. The girls at the centre of the 1885 scandal were dismissed by respectable society as fallen women. MP Charles Hopwood said in the House of Commons that working-class girls who went upon the streets had a familiarity with these things from an early age and were quite able to take care of themselves. Victim-blaming drew attention away from the procurers and the clients — exactly as it has in every subsequent scandal of this kind.
Third, the establishment tries very hard to cover up such abuse. Money and influence protected abusers in 1885. They protected them in the Epstein case. The cultural history of how power protects itself is not a history of exceptions. It is a history of the rule.
The history offers guidance for the present: put pressure on those in power to take effective and swift action, do not trust politicians exploiting abuse to gain power, rigorously uncover institutional corruption and ensure that money and influence do not protect abusers from rightful consequences. Most importantly — believe and centre the voices of victims and survivors.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Original authors: Claire Cunnington, Research Associate, University of Sheffield, and Caroline Derry, Senior Lecturer in Law, The Open University.
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