I pretended to be drunk to expose men’s predatory behaviour on TV

Ellie Flynn regularly puts herself in dangerous situations, but never has she felt more scared than when sat on a sunlounger in Magaluf.

In recent years, the investigative journalist has gone undercover to meet with landlords offering free rent for sex, and she’s allowed a stranger to follow her from a UK nightclub to a hotel room before confronting him.

However, it was her latest documentary, Magaluf Undercover – Predators & Parties, that left her feeling most vulnerable.

Alongside her team, she flew to the Spanish party island to expose the predatory underbelly of the tourist hotspot favoured by Brits abroad. Posing as drunk, she secretly filmed the actions of the men who approached her on hidden cameras.

Although, she was expecting to experience some sexual harassment based on horrifying evidence – in 2023 there were 48 rapes reported to the police in the Magaluf area – what she uncovered was worse than she could have ever imagined.

‘We had a strong feeling there was bad behaviour there, but what shocked me was how coordinated it felt,’ she told .

‘I haven’t ever been as scared as I was on that beach’

When approached by men, Ellie often found that they were often ‘working in groups’. In one instance, a man cornered her to chat after chatting to a second man, asking if she’d like to kiss. When Ellie indicated she was not interested, he headed over to speak to a third man and said: ‘She’s completely wasted. Let’s go for it!’ That man then took his opportunity to speak with her, and when Ellie walked away, he followed.

‘I haven’t ever been as scared as I was on that beach. There’s something about the feeling of being outnumbered that upset me,’ she summarised.

The other issue was the sheer frequency of the approaches from men, who were undeterred even after rejection. ‘It was an endless conveyor belt of relentless, desperate harassment. They kept trying to come into my personal space and touch me even when I was actively moving away. It was non-stop.’ She noted this worsened at the nightclubs’ closing time, when revellers would spill out onto the Punta Ballena strip and nearby beach.

After four consecutive nights of filming, Ellie felt at her limit. The undercover work had naturally come to its end, but Ellie doesn’t think she would have been able to continue anyway.

She was emotionally drained after ‘being gaslit’ on her final evening. Three months later, it still terrifies her to think about it.

The incident began with a man repeatedly asking Ellie if she was okay, and offering his help, and inquiring if she had any friends. The conversation convinced Ellie he may have genuine concern. For this reason, she let the situation play out, rather than signalling for backup from her team. After more time had passed, the man began to place his hands on her body.

‘He lulled me into a sense of security, and I felt quite upset afterwards as I was questioning if I should have spotted signs earlier.

‘I was a sober journalist, literally there to investigate that exact thing, and I still felt confusion. How are the women enjoying a night out meant to navigate it?’

Ellie is also keen to note this isn’t just an issue in Magaluf, but party holidays as a whole.

The dangers of the investigation

The premise of the documentary draws similarities to the Promising Young Woman. In the film, Carey Muligan’s character Cassie Thomas spends her evenings going to bars and clubs and pretending to be drunk, then confronting anyone if they attempt to take sexual advantage of her intoxication. Emulating aspects of the movie is not something that Ellie undertook lightly, and she warns others from staging a similar operation.

There was a whole operation behind the scenes that made the situation safe for Ellie. Eight crew members were nearby, including two trained security men. Pre-established hand signals and code words were ready if needed.

Ellie also worked with an acting coach to ensure she went undetected. Rather than doing an impression of any drunk person, they told her to recall her own experiences of being drunk and mimic that.

Remembering her previous intoxicated states, and witnessing how potential attacks can begin, led her to think deeply about the situations she has encountered.

‘When I was young, it was really easy to kind of write it off as “He was weird”. You laugh it off, you forget about it, and you move on,’ she said matter-of-factly.

‘I had a friend who would always kick off at guys for smacking her bum in the clubs and I used to be like, “You can’t fight with everybody”. Now I just think it’s completely insane that I ever felt that it was okay to let it happen.’

Ellie concluded: ‘I didn’t realise that it was a problem because it was so common.’

Now, as a 31-year-old woman, Ellie’s views are the opposite, and she wants to ‘save’ others, which makes her job difficult at times.

‘It was a really hard line to draw as a reporter because we couldn’t go around telling everyone what we were doing and trying to save every woman on the strip, but also it was hard to just go to bed,’ she recalled. In some situations, the security team would monitor situations in case they escalated.

Fixing a cultural problem

After conducting the research, which included undercover work, an independent survey, and speaking to female holidaymakers, Ellie is certain there is a wider issue that needs addressing.

‘There’s an assumption that when when you hear about a sexual assault, rape or attack, it’s one bad apple, but it’s groups of people. There is a cultural problem here – predators who are going out with ill intent and looking to prey on drunk women,’ she observed.

Ellie is acutely aware that women always face risks, wherever they are in the world, but says it is ‘more obvious’ in the party holiday environment. She quickly added that while men are also victims of sexual assaults, women experience it in greater volume.

This difference in experience means that women can’t enjoy their time on holiday in the same way as men. She witnessed ‘carefree men’ walking alone, but solo women were almost always approached. While the women she spoke to often planned to stick together to avoid harm.

Ellie isn’t suggesting people don’t go on these types of holidays, or enjoy flirtation on night out, but wants a future where ‘really simple stuff’ like consent is the standard, and victim-blaming is redundant.

‘I want men to watch this documentary and acknowledge that women have a totally different experience at these party destinations. I want them to behave differently and call out their friends if they see them doing wrong,’ she said.

‘I’m not trying to say that all men are bad, but there is a culture that women bear the brunt of.’