It's an offence!

If you park your car for too long, or at certain times of day, outside the last remaining massage parlour in West Street, Old Market, it may not be there when you return. But the brothel will.

At the first meeting of the Old Market Community Association, a week ago, attendees were told by a senior policeman that little was done about the crimes taking place in so called 'massage parlours', because they are a lower priority than dealing with street based sex workers.

He told the group that it was considered better for these women to be working in licensed establishments than out on the streets.

He was wrong. There are no licences for massage parlours. It is not possible to license a brothel.

At a local PACT meeting, recently, a former policeman, who had worked in the vice squad at Trinity Road Police Station and whose beat had included Old Market, expressed a similar view.

He told the meeting that the women had chosen their work and were happy doing it!

If someone is holding a gun to your head, you may have the choice to close your eyes - and you may be 'happy' to do it - but would you call it a choice?

Isn't it more likely that a person would turn to prostitution through desperation - lack of choice - than choice?

When you talk to the police about brothels, they rarely mention the criminals.

They talk about the sex workers. It's not illegal to be a sex worker at a brothel.

It is an offence, a criminal act, for a person to keep, or to manage, or act or assist in the management of a brothel.

...

There was a sponsored walk a few nights ago in aid of One25, an organisation whose aim is:

"...to enable women marginalised from mainstream society primarily through involvement in street based sex work to access appropriate services and to become aware of alternative possibilities for their lives..."

The One25 website reports the following facts about street sex-workers:

• 99% are addicted to one or more Class A drugs and/or alcohol
• In 2007 we recorded 123 violent incidents reported to us by the women including domestic violence, rape and armed attacks
  
• All suffer from chronic physical, mental and/or sexual health problems and half suffer from acute ill health*
  
• 66% are homeless *
  
• 62% were abused as children*
  
• 38% have been through fostering or children's homes*
  
• 46% went through the criminal justice system in 2007
  
• 32% left school at 14 or younger *
  
• Their age range is 17-49
  
• 65% have had children but 79% of those have had their children removed from them
  
• Only 1% of violent incidents against street based sex workers results in a conviction**

* Jeal, N and Salisbury, C (2004) @Self reported experiences of health services among street based prostitutes' British Medical Journal 65 pp 123

** (2001) 'Violence against sex workers' British medical Journal 332 pp524