The Hunter - Podcast Rankings and reviews

As a person who had similar childhood trauma with parents who refuse to believe me or advocate for me, this was so validating. I wish my parents had the same voracity and it’s healing to hear of a mother fighting so hard for her baby.

Initially I had a hard time with some of the lack of victim narrative in this story; how it highlighted the vigilante efforts (and success) of one mom versus focusing more on the tragedy of the situation. I think that’s because I primarily listen to dark true crime. Quite frankly, this is the most incredible story of a mother’s tenacity in ensuring justice is served to the worst monster there is — a child molester. The world needs a million more Lydia’s. Children don’t only need, but deserve the kind of support this mother offered, and the absolute reverence she showed for the fragility of his experiences. I cannot speak more highly of this woman and I don’t even know her. I wish I did. Where the world fails children again, and again, and again, she absolutely did not. She didn’t take no for an answer, she didn’t take wait for an answer. She did right by her boy in a situation that will never be made fully right. If only the world had more Lydia’s, maybe the silent sufferers of our planet would be a little safer. This podcast is such an important one. She may just be my hero.

I binged this series. What an incredible story of a fierce, determined mama. At its heart, it’s about healing. Loved the layers relating to ancestral/cultural practices and how they supported mom and son on this traumatic journey. A well produced, well written podcast that really moved me.

Such an eye opening podcast. I had no idea how rarely predators like this actually end up in jail! The statistics are horrifying. Parts of it were hard to listen to but the host thankfully didn’t get into graphic details and gave the victim some privacy. I’m glad I listened to the end. I love Lydia, stories of women fighting for justice always leave me feeling inspired.

I really wanted to like this because I generally love podcasts from the bbc. I did not love this, though. I really struggled knowing that a large part of it hinged on the mother (well-intentioned though she certainly was) identified and isolated victims of childhood sexual assault/trauma and she used those previously unnamed victims to try and build the case of her own family.

I genuinely hesitated to even write this review, but it was properly difficult to listen to an already-horrific tale of CSA with a tale of someone either appropriately or inappropriately (I’m not sure we could really know from the information given) finding additional victims without necessarily having the training to do so in a way that would be conducive to the investigation and that would, to the extent possible, mitigate the level of risk to the survivors.