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| “ | You're going to be fine, Dahlia. You're a survivor. You always have been. | „ |
| ~ Hayes heartlessly casting Dahlia Jessup aside to go to prison |
Jordan Hayes is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Flight". He is a wealthy pedophile who sexually abuses adolescent girls with the help of his girlfriend and former victim.
He was portrayed by Colm Feore, who also portrayed Rudolf Höss in Nuremberg, Laufey in Thor, Donald Menken in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Randall Flynn in Revolution, Giuliano della Rovere in The Borgias, André Linoge in Storm of the Century, Sir Reginald Hargreeves in The Umbrella Academy, Chief James Davis in Changeling, Detective Frank McDuff in National Security, Zhylaw in The Chronicles of Riddick, and The Dollmaker in Gotham.
Early life[]
A graduate of MIT, Hayes made billions as a federal defense contractor, which he spent on a lavish lifestyle, including two private jets and his own island. Unbeknownst to the public, he was also a pedophile who sexually abused preteen and teenage girls. He would lure them by promising to turn them into supermodels and then take them to exclusive, celebrity-studded parties, where he would rape them. He used his many political connections, including New York City's Chief of Police and an ex-president, to make sure his crimes were never investigated.
An adept liar and manipulator, he brainwashed one of his victims, 13-year-old Dahlia Jessup, into believing that he loved her. He abused her until she outgrew his age preference, but he kept her around to publicly show her off as his "on-off girlfriend" in order to allay suspicion about his sexual habits. She regularly brought him adolescent girls to abuse, believing that she was showing him how much she loved him by helping him hurt young girls the same way he hurt her. In return, he gave her the start-up money for her own clothing line. He also had his house manager, Giles, pay the girls afterward, both for their silence and for bringing their female friends to Hayes' parties.
Shortly before the events of the episode, Hayes threw himself an opulent 50th birthday party at his mansion, and Jessup brought him two "presents": Dominique Moreau, a 12-year-old French aspiring model living in New York City, and her 15-year-old friend Nicole Philipe, both flown in from Paris on one of Hayes' jets. Hayes got Dominique drunk and took her to the plane's sleeping cabin, where he told her to take her clothes off and give him a massage. When she reluctantly complied, he overpowered and raped her. The following day, he sent Dominique back to Paris on a cheap commercial flight.
"Flight"[]
During the flight, Dominique, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the rape, panics when the man sitting next to her reaches over to close the shade and accuses him of assaulting her. The French authorities finds that the passenger is innocent, but they suspect that Dominique has been abused, so they reach out the NYPD's Special Victims Unit for help.
Through an interpreter, Dominique tells Captain Donald Cragen and Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler what Hayes did to her, but she refuses to return to New York City and testify against him. Benson and Stabler speak with Jessup and Hayes' pilot, but they both refuse to answer questions about Dominique and call Hayes to warn him about the investigation. Later that day, Hayes and his lawyer turn up at the SVU station house to press rape charges against Dominique, claiming that she "forced herself" on Hayes and then threatened to accuse him of rape unless he gave her money.
Shortly afterward, Jessup attempts suicide by overdosing on medication, so Hayes has his own private doctor tend to her and then visits her himself, "coincidentally" at the same time that Benson and Stabler are trying to question her. Hayes tells her to be completely honest with the detectives, but with just enough menace in his voice to intimidate her into telling them that nothing happened on the plane and that her overdose was an accident.
The same day, Nicole gives an interview on live TV in which she says that Hayes is innocent, and that Dominique accused him of rape because she wanted to "get rich". Benson and Stabler then find out that Nicole has just signed a modeling contract with a cosmetics line. They know instantly that Hayes arranged the contract to buy Nicole's help in discrediting Dominique, but they cannot prove it. They try to surveil Hayes' house, but he catches them and invites them in, subtly gloating by showing off the underage female masseuses he employs and the CCTV he records his massages with for "protection" against false accusations.
Realizing that the case will collapse without Dominique's testimony, Detective John Munch chats online with her, pretending to be another preteen girl who was sexually abused, and tells her she needs to speak out. The ruse works - Dominique posts a blog accuses Hayes of raping her, describing the assault in detail, and several other young girls come forward, accusing him of doing the same thing to them after Jessup lured them to his mansion with promises of money and modeling work. Benson and Stabler then arrest Hayes, Jessup, and Giles. They also get a search warrant for Hayes' mansion, which yields multiple recordings of Hayes receiving massages from underage girls and then raping them.
Stabler puts Hayes in a holding cell with another sex offender named Ernest and plays one of the recordings, which reveals that Hayes has a small penis. Stabler and Ernest both mock him for his lack of endowment, provoking Hayes to fly into a rage and beat Ernest up. Stabler then takes Hayes to the restroom, where he runs into Jessup, who has just learned from Benson that he lied to her about getting her legal representation. When she confronts him, he placates her by saying that he is "handling it".
At that moment, however, federal agents take Hayes into custody, having strong-armed Cragen into handing him over so they can pursue a child pornography case against him. Benson and Stabler tell Dahlia that Hayes is likely going to a minimum security, "country club"-like federal prison, while she is facing up to 80 years in a state prison. When Dahlia begs Hayes not to abandon her, he coldly replies that she will be fine in prison because she is "a survivor". He then leaves the building in federal custody to await trial.
Trivia[]
- Hayes is based upon the late hedge fund billionaire and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who was still alive at the time the episode aired (February 2011). Like Epstein, Hayes is a politically connected billionaire who owns a private jet and his own island, and who preys on underage girls.
External links[]
- Jordan Hayes on the Law & Order Wiki
