Soho defends sex workers as part of the community
 

Monday 16 February, 2pm
Westminster Magistrates Court, Horseferry Rd, SW1
Sex workers & maids appeal application by the Metropolitan Police
for Closure Order on flats at 61 Dean Street, Soho.
 

For information contact:

English Collective of Prostitutes 020 7482 2496
ecp@allwomencount.net  www.prostitutescollective.net

Local residents and businesses are outraged by the Closure Order against 61 Dean Street. Police allege it promotes anti-social behaviour and “attracts touts and opportunist thieves and drug dealers who gather outside the venue. . .” Not a shred of evidence has been produced, only claims of anonymous, third-hand, hearsay accounts.

But thousands have signed a letter and a petition protesting the eviction of sex workers from Soho premises. Soho residents, bar staff, shop owners and restaurateurs have given heartfelt statements expressing their love of and dedication to Soho as a diverse, unprejudiced, lively community of which sex workers are an integral part. They complain about the police targeting women who are trying to make a living for drug related offences they have nothing to do with. Some also say that while targeting consenting sex, the police are dismissing violent attacks as “minor crimes”.
Soho is one of the safest places for women in the sex industry – women are proud that there has never been a murder in one of the flats. But actions by the police and Westminster Council to evict women, have had at least one tragic consequence. One woman pushed out of Soho onto the streets was murdered by the ‘Camden Ripper’. Women from Dean Street are now working in King’s Cross, while the flats are closed.
 

Soho’s residents will be giving evidence in court to the effect that:

“There is no public support for prostitute women to be evicted from flats in Soho.”

“I feel strongly that women working in this way are not causing a nuisance . . . I would urge the police to focus their attention on the relatively rare occasions where people have suffered violence . . .”

“I have worked and lived in and around Soho for over 19 years . . . I am concerned about safety. It would be an unspeakable tragedy if any woman was raped or even killed as a result of being forced out of the safer working environment of the flats. . .”

“It is a serious mistake to link the sex industry to drug use or disruptive behaviour on the street. There may be undesirable elements in some areas. But sex is not an undesirable element.”

This raid, the second in Soho in two months, is part of the latest government crackdown. The Policing and Crime Bill, currently going through Parliament, proposes to close premises where women work consensually and independently. Members of the House of Lords who oppose the legislation met over 40 Soho sex workers and maids in St Anne’s Church to find out about their lives: nearly all were mothers struggling to support their families in increasingly hard times, fearful of ending up on the streets if the flats were closed.