Ebba Karlsson was 20 when she met him. She was with her boyfriend and friends in a park in downtown Stockholm when an older French guy approached her and asked if she had ever modelled. His name, he told her, was Daniel Goldberg. And he was a model scout with connections all over.
A little while later, she was with him in a beautiful villa near Cannes, overlooking the Mediterranean. It was there, she says, that he raped her.
"Afterwards I blamed myself", she tells Helen Pidd, "because I thought why didn't I fight back or punch him or run away? But I was too scared to."
Identifying the Scout
For decades, Ebba could find out little about this Daniel Goldberg. It was only late last year – once the Epstein files were released – that a journalist called her with the news. They had found the scout … but his name was Daniel Siad.
Guardian journalist Amelia Gentleman describes what is known about Daniel Siad – the model scout accused by multiple women of human trafficking and rape – and his relationship with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
After Siad's Death
After his sudden death at his home in Paris last week, what now for the women pursuing justice against Siad, and the many enablers of Epstein's crimes? Ebba alleges too that Daniel Siad brought her to the powerful fashion boss Gerald Marie, who also assaulted her – an accusation Marie has always denied. More about Marie and the multiple accusations against him can be found in a 2020 Guardian investigation.
