English Collective of Prostitutes

PO Box 287 London NW6 5QU  Tel: 020 7482 2496 Fax: 020 7209 4761

ecp@allwomencount.net, www.prostitutescollective.net

Dear Friends,

We are delighted to report that charges against Ms W for assisting in the management of a brothel were dropped at the last minute in court on Wednesday.  Ms W is relieved and deeply grateful to all those who wrote in support. 

The prosecution offered no case on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute overturning the Holburn CPS Reviewing Officer who had written to say that there was “sufficient evidence” and that proceeding was “in the public interest”.  The prosecution was clearly influenced by the many letters received by the Director of Public Prosecutions objecting to the prosecution of a woman whose primary role had been to ensure other women’s safety. 

Supporters, including Ms W’s daughter and friends, filled the public gallery in court.  We witnessed two police officers, from Charing Cross Clubs and Vice Unit and Holburn police station, trying to browbeat the CPS prosecutor into going ahead with the case.  The defence provided precedent cases, (Elliott & Kuhn v DPP and Dublidis v DPP) where Justice Taylor ruled that “some evidence of control or a say in the running of premises is essential before a court can find that a person can be found to be ‘assisting in the management’, which helped the CPS to stand firm against this pressure.

This case proves a lie to government claims made during the debates on provisions on prostitution in the Policing and Crime that “It is certainly not our intention to criminalise those involved in freely consenting transactions.”[1] 

How much public money was squandered on bringing this case to court?  Recent public outrage, spearheaded by Women Against Rape, has demanded a change in police priorities which result in consenting sex being criminalised while the investigation of rape and other violence continues to be downgraded and dismissed. 

In a recent case, 77 suspected child victims of trafficking, went missing from a local authority care home over a period of two years.  Only four children have been found and there have been no prosecutions.  A surveillance operation at the home was cancelled, and despite it being known that children were disappearing more young people kept on being sent there.  What does it say about police priorities that resources couldn’t be found to place two officers outside the home to stop the children being taken yet 15 officers were found to raid the premises where Ms W was arrested?

The Policing and Crime Bill, currently going through parliament, will push prostitution further underground and sex workers into more danger. It includes measures to throw women out of flats where we are working independently and collectively, criminalise clients engaged in consenting sex, make it easier for the police to arrest sex workers on the street, bring in compulsory “rehabilitation”, and extend powers to seize earnings and assets.  The police have boasted that they will use the powers to “close up to 1,200 brothels”.  What will be the cost of criminalizing women working safely and independently? 

The Commons Third Reading debate is scheduled for 19 May so now is the time to contact your MP with your concerns.  An action alert and the current briefing are attached.  We’ll send more information shortly. 

English Collective of Prostitutes

PO Box 287

London NW6 5QU

Tel:  020 7482 2496

Fax: 020 7209 4761

Email: ecp@allwomencount.net

Web: www.prostitutescollective.net