Title: Inspector Minahan makes a stand
Description: In Victorian London, unwitting girls were regularly enticed, tricked and sold into prostitution, while the Establishment turned a blind eye. In the backwater of Chelsea, Irish Inspector Jeremiah Minahan met Mary Jeffries, a notorious trafficker and procuress who counted Cabinet members and royalty among her clientele. Within days of reporting Jeffries, Minahan was unceremoniously forced out of the Metropolitan Police - so he turned private detective, setting out to expose the peers and politicians more interested in shielding their own positions (and peccadilloes) than London's child prostitutes. The findings Minahan revealed in 1885 sparked national outrage: riots, arrests, a tabloid war, a sensational trial, and eventually a change in the law that still holds today. But other secrets were so fearful he took them to his grave, where they have remained - until now.
Subjects: Investigation, Human trafficking, Sex crimes, Girls, Crimes against, History
Places: England, London
People: Jeremiah Minahan (1842-1897)
Time periods: 19th century