‘We’ll never get justice now’ say ‘child rape’ victims after snapper David Hamilton is found dead in Paris after cop probe
After plucking up the courage to speak out about abuse, man who admitted he was 'living on the razor’s edge for photographing young nude girls' won't ever be brought to justice, say victims
THE British photographer at the centre of a child rape scandal went to his grave protesting his innocence – and BRAGGING of his conquests to the end.
Hamilton, 83, was found in an “asphyxiated state” in his Paris flat with bottles of pills nearby. Attempts were made to revive him but he reportedly died of a heart attack.
For his alleged victims, his death is yet another cruel twist of fate.
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After finally plucking up the courage to speak out about the abuse, the man they believe destroyed their lives will now never be brought to justice.
At first the mum-of-two did not reveal the identity of the man she claimed had raped her when she was 13, although there was a big hint on the book’s cover — a photo of her as a girl taken by Hamilton.
It prompted three more women to come forward to make claims about their similar shocking experiences, which gave Flavie the courage to name Hamilton last week.
Twice-married Hamilton, who had no immediate family, had vociferously denied the allegations.
His final words were, according to one friend: “I’m innocent.”
And his last known public statement was both a declaration of innocence and an attack on Flavie.
He said, via his spokesman: “The instigator of this media lynching is seeking her quarter of an hour of fame through slander. I will be filing several legal complaints.”
But The Sun can reveal that Hamilton was also BOASTING of seducing young women in his final days.
And he had a picture of a young girl on his business card the day he died.
One of his close contacts in the photographic world said: “David was determined to prove his innocence but felt he was too old and too tired.
“He spoke to an old friend just a few days ago and made it clear he had turned into a virtual hermit since Flavie Flament went public.
“David didn’t want to speak to anybody in public, so left everything to his spokesman and his lawyers.
“In the end the horrendous claims all became too much for him, but he didn’t regret anything.
“As far as he was concerned he had seduced plenty of teenagers, but they were all above the age of consent.
“He was speaking about his conquests right up until Flavie Flament went public.”
Born in London, Hamilton moved to France when he was 20 to work as a graphic designer for French Elle.
He divided his time between Ramatuelle, near St Tropez, and his Paris apartment in Montmartre. He scouted the naturist beaches of the South of France “shopping” for his models.
Even he was aware that his trademark photographs walked a fine line between art and pornography.
He said in an interview in 2007: “By photographing very young nude girls, I’m living on the razor’s edge.”
But to Flavie and the other women who have come forward, they claim that line was more than crossed.
In her book, Flavie recalls how she was on a nudist beach in Cap d’Adge when Hamilton approached.
The then 55-year-old, who was wearing Bermuda shorts and had a camera slung around his neck, asked her mother if he could photograph her 13-year-old daughter.
Flattered and thrilled at the idea of her girl being immortalised by one of the world’s top photographers, her mother readily agreed.
She took Flavie to Hamilton’s beach hut studio the next day, where he allegedly sexually assaulted and molested her.
Flavie had been posing naked on a towel on the terrace when she said Hamilton buried his head between her legs, kissed her and led her into the shower.
She said: “He raped me in the shower. I had just turned 13. I wasn’t yet formed — I didn’t have breasts. I was still sucking my thumb.”
She remembers feeling pain and disgust and later, when her mum collected her, she recalls Hamilton telling her mother it had been a good session and produced “some lovely pictures”.
But the youngster said nothing because: “I was so afraid of disappointing my mother, of making her unhappy.”
On her second visit, Hamilton opened the door naked, wearing just his camera round his neck, but Flavie said her mother still felt no concern.
She said: “I remember looking into his eyes, then down again, then up again. I couldn’t believe it.”
Hamilton even took Flavie on his beach “shopping” missions, telling her to look for an attractive “mouse” — his word for female genitalia.
Flavie said: “Mothers were very proud when their daughters were chosen. This was a world famous photographer. He was regarded as an artistic genius.”
Feeling very uneasy and intimidated
Another of his former models has said: “To be noticed by him was to be the chosen one.”
In his heyday in the 1960s and 1970s, Hamilton sold millions of books and produced five films.
He was in demand in Japan and America. Posters, calendars and even tea trays bore his portraits and some were used in a long-running Nina Ricci perfume ad campaign for L’Air du Temps.
But by the 1990s his appeal had waned, his images sparking debate about whether they were art or porn.
Hamilton suggested the 1996 case of Belgian serial killer and child molester Marc Dutroux had caused a shift in public opinion.
Dutroux kidnapped, tortured and sexually abused six girls aged eight to 19 from 1995 to 1996, murdering four of them.
Then in 2005, Surrey auditor Stanley Loam, 49, was convicted of possessing 19,000 indecent child images — including some by Hamilton.
Hamilton said in 2007: “There’s been a witch-hunt since the Dutroux affair.
“The climate has never been so bad. By photographing very young nude girls, I’m living on the razor’s edge.”
Before the publication of Flavie’s book describing her ordeal, a woman named “Alice” had previously reported being abused by Hamilton.
She said he had assaulted her the second time she posed for him, when she had found herself feeling “very uneasy and very intimidated”.
She said he whispered in her ear, “Can you keep a secret?” before raping her.
Hamilton denied it and Alice dropped the charges for fear his celebrity would give him an advantage and any court case would “ruin my life”.
Another unnamed woman has said Hamilton told her after raping her: “You’re lucky I chose you because you’re not that beautiful. The others adore what I do to them.”
One victim alleges she was raped aged 14 in 1967 — 20 years before Flavie’s ordeal.
At a restaurant near his home in Ramatuelle, Hamilton would often socialise with celebrities, including Ivana Trump, supermodel Victoria Silvstedt and Italian actress Isabella Orsini.
But when Flavie’s book surfaced, he went to ground.
In France, where the age of consent is 15, French law says allegations of child rape must be made before the victim turns 38 — which would have scuppered any prosecution of Hamilton.
Even so, Flavie has branded Hamilton’s suspected suicide as “cowardly”.
She said: “I’m deeply shocked by Hamilton’s death and disappointed that it denies me a chance to win justice.
“We are condemned to silence. It’s horrible. We can’t be heard any more. We are stunned.”