Victim or villain: how guilty are the female accomplices of predatory men?

‘Could these women be understood as brainwashed victims who were acting on the orders of more powerful and threatening men?’ Illustration: Rita Liu/The Guardian

It was in her second year of college that a not-quite-20-year-old Sarah Lawrence student, Isabella Pollok, fell under the influence of Lawrence Ray, a cult leader who, for a decade, turned her into his trusted lieutenant in his campaign of terror.

Pollok was sentenced to 54 months in prison last week for her role in helping Ray abuse a group of vulnerable classmates. While in Ray’s thrall, Pollok, who was also his lover, even played prop master at his late-night torture sessions, allegedly fetching the plastic bag that Ray placed over one coercively prostituted cult member’s head.