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| “ | He loves me. I'm not a whore like his one-offs. I'm the one he can't let go. | „ |
| ~ Jessup revealing the severity of her delusions about Jordan Hayes |
Dahlia Jessup is the secondary antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Flight". She is billionaire pedophile Jordan Hayes' girlfriend and former victim who helps him traffic and sexually abuse preteen girls.
She was portrayed by Kelli Barrett, who also portrayed Phoebe Bernap in a later SVU episode.
Early life[]
When Jessup was 13 years old, billionaire defense contractor Jordan Hayes, then in his late 30s, seduced her by promising to make her a world-famous fashion model. He groomed her by taking her to lavish parties and flying her to his privately-owned island on his private jet until, finally, he raped her. For the next few years, he repeatedly raped her on camera in his private spa.
By this time, he had brainwashed her into believing that he was the only person in the world who loved her, and that she could show him how much she loved him by bringing him other girls her age to abuse. She would tell her girlfriends that Hayes - "Jordy", as she called him - could get them modeling work if they went to his exclusive parties, and then brought them to him to rape.
By the time she was 17, she had outgrown his age preference, but he had her move in with him anyway and appear on his arm as his "on-off girlfriend" to allay suspicion. She also continued procuring young girls for him, for which he rewarded her by giving her the startup money for her own clothing line, which she launched when she was in her mid-20s.
Shortly before the events of the episode, Jessup went to Paris for Fashion Week and befriended two young girls, 12-year-old Dominique Moreau and 15-year-old Nicole Philipe, who both aspired to be models. She flew them to New York City on Hayes' private jet and invited them to Hayes' 50th birthday party in his mansion. She presented Dominique to Hayes as his "present", and he took her into his spa, where he forced her to strip naked and massage him and then overpowered and raped her. The next day, he put her on a cheap flight back to Paris.
"Flight"[]
When a male passenger on the plane inadvertently brushes against Dominique while closing a shade, she has a PTSD-induced panic attack and accuses him of assaulting her. The French authorities find that the man is innocent, but they suspect she has been sexually abused, so they contact the NYPD's Special Victims Unit. Dahlia tells Captain Donald Cragen and Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler that Hayes raped her, but she refuses to go back to New York City and testify against him.
While investigating Hayes, Benson and Stabler question Jessup, who is in the middle of preparing for a fashion show. She says that she put Dominique and Nicole in a guest bedroom after they got sick from too much champagne. When Benson and Stabler say that Hayes raped Dominique, however, she refuses to talk to them any further and calls Hayes to warn him about the investigation.
When Hayes files charges against Dominique claiming that she raped him, he names Jessup as the person who let the girl into his room to massage him, which he claims to have known nothing about. Panicked, Jessup attempts suicide by taking an overdose of Xanax. She survives, however, and Hayes her taken to a private hospital, where his personal physician tends to her. Benson and Stabler try to question her in her hospital bed, but Hayes arrives and levels a threatening look at her that scares her into silence.
Detective John Munch chats online with Dominique, posing as another 12-year-old rape victim, and persuades her to post an account of her rape. She does so, and soon dozens of young girls come forward about Jessup promising them quick money and modeling work if they went to one of Hayes' parties at his mansion, where Hayes then raped them. Assistant District Attorney Gillian Hardwicke gets a search warrant for Hayes' mansion, where crime scene technicians find dozens of recordings of Hayes receiving nude massages from underage girls before raping them. Benson and Stabler arrest Hayes, Jessup, and Hayes' house manager Giles, who pays the girls to keep quiet, for rape, child sexual abuse, sex trafficking, and child pornography.
Benson interrogates Jessup, who insists that Hayes loves her and dismisses his victims as "whores". Benson replies that Hayes has refused to get her a lawyer and that she is facing up to 80 years in prison for sex trafficking and rape, however, she flies into a rage and demands to see him. Benson leads her to Hayes, who is being taken into federal custody after making a deal to plead guilty to federal child pornography charges in return for a reduced sentence in a minimum-security prison. She begs Hayes to help her, but he washes his hands of her, coldly reassuring her that she will survive in prison. As federal agents lead Hayes out of the precinct, Dahlia tearfully yells after him that she loves him and pleads with him not to leave her.
She is then presumably imprisoned for life.
Trivia[]
- As Hayes is based on the late hedge fund billionaire and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Jessup is presumably based on Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's long-term girlfriend who groomed multiple teenage girls for Epstein to sexually abuse.
External links[]
- Dahlia Jessup on the Law & Order Wiki
