Read more at This Is London…

Crackdown on kerb-crawlers under new laws

Kerb-crawlers can be arrested on their first offence under new laws designed to tackle the demand for prostitution, Home Office minister Alan Campbell said today.

And a poster campaign launched to coincide with International Women’s Day will warn potential “punters” of new criminal fines of up to £1,000 for having sex with a woman forced into prostitution against her will.

Changes to the law coming into effect on April 1 will remove a requirement for police to establish that a man is “persistently” kerb-crawling before arresting him.

Mr Campbell said the reforms are intended to hit hardest the men who pay for sex, while helping often vulnerable women to leave prostitution.

“We are determined to tackle the demand for prostitution and provide help for those who wish to leave prostitution,” he said.

“These new measures build on the significant action we have already taken to tackle prostitution and trafficking for sexual exploitation. They will help bring greater protection to vulnerable people involved in prostitution.

“Alongside this we are also continuing our funding to tackle the appalling crime of domestic violence with £4.3 million to support help for victims.”

From April 1, a man paying for sex with a prostitute who is being exploited through force, deception or threats will be breaking the law, whether or not he knows that she is selling her body against her will.

The World Cup means world class opportunities for working girls.  Read more at The Star…

World Cup to draw 40 000 hookers to SA
by Kenichi Serino

As many as 40 000 women are expected to arrive in South Africa ahead of the World Cup to work as prostitutes, according to the Central Drug Authority (CDA).

“Forty-thousand new prostitutes. As if we do not have enough people of our own, we have to import them to ensure that our visitors are entertained,” CDA deputy chairman David Bayever said in Pretoria yesterday at the release of the International Narcotics Control Board’s annual report.

He said the agency had been warned by the eThekwini metropolitan municipality of the possibility of huge inflows. “They got wind of it.”

Many of the women were likely to be recruited from eastern Europe.

Bayever also warned that the extension of school holidays during the soccer tournament would put children at risk of being lured into sex work.

“Our youth are going to be on holiday. They are going to be targeted to become prostitutes.”

The Olympics was great for business in Vancouver. Read more at The New York Daily News…

Winter Olympics’ boost for Vancouver sex trade as business triples at brothel
By Megan Taylor

Vancouver’s estimated 1,000 sex workers agree: The Olympic Games are good for business.

Business at a brothel near downtown Vancouver tripled during the Winter Olympics, AOL News reports. But instead of the expected foreign visitors, Sexy Nina, who owns the house of ill repute, found local clients excited by the competitive spirit.

“The Games gave us the desire and willingness to connect, the energy to move,” she told AOL News. “What an amazing two weeks!”

Despite fears that out-of-town sex workers could make work riskier, some street workers reported that business was slow, said Kerry Porth, the executive director of Prostitution Alternatives Counseling & Education Society (PACE), which offered nightly outreach sessions during the Games.

Porth said the increased police presence may be to blame for some of the slowdown in street business.

“There were police on foot and in cars, all over the usual sex worker neighborhoods,” she said.

Although sex work is legal in Vancouver, some associated activities are not, such as running a brothel. But the Vancouver Police Department usually leaves sex workers alone.

It’s not the punchline to a joke.  It’s true!  Read the whole story at The Telegraph…

Swiss prostitutes trained to use defibrillators in brothels to prevent clients dying

Brothel owners in the Lugano area say electric shock treatment to restart customer’s hearts is needed because so many elderly customers are using their services.

The most recent victim was a pensioner, thought to be having fun with the help of anti-impotence medication.

His death followed a series of other incidents, some fatal, in which heart attacks have claimed brothel customers in the area.

The owner of one sex club said: “Having customers die on us isn’t exactly good publicity”.

There are now 38 sex clubs and brothel in the Lugano area. And more are planned, according to Italian daily, Corriere della Sera, in order to accommodate the thousands of customers who pour over the border from Italy, where brothels are illegal. Around 80 per cent of the men who pay for sex in the area are thought to be Italian.

It’s dangerous out there, guys. Read more at The Scotsman…

Man’s killers ‘used prostitution lure’
By Victoria Allen

A BUSINESSMAN was murdered after he visited a known red-light district and left there with a female companion, a court heard yesterday.

Alan Bennett, 56, was on a night out with work colleagues before he headed to the streets of Aberdeen’s harbour, an area that is frequented by prostitutes.

Almost three hours later, a reveller in a different part of the city centre found Mr Bennett’s body. He had been stabbed to death.

Paul Balgowan and Julie Carroll, both 25, are accused of luring him to his death by promising him sex.

On the first day of their trial at the High Court in Aberdeen the jury was shown CCTV footage of Mr Bennett at Regent Quay on the night he died.

Detective Constable Andrew Barclay of Grampian Police told the court: “Regent Quay is known as a red-light district. Further along is a former Grampian Police tolerance zone for prostitution, and prostitutes meet in that area.”

The footage showed Mr Bennett heading to the harbour at at about 1:35am on 30 May last year and leaving with a woman thought to be Carroll.

Following just 30 seconds behind them were two figures, one of which was said to be Carroll’s partner, Balgowan. It is not clear if Mr Bennett knew he was being followed, but DC Barclay said Carroll kept looking back over her shoulder.

The pair are accused of persuading the victim to go with Carroll, then pulling a knife on him.

It is claimed he was forced to hand over his wallet and then repeatedly punched and stabbed in the head and body.

Both deny the charges.

Read more at The New Zealand Herald…

Chinese students lured to become sex workers
By Lincoln Tan

Sex workers are using a bilingual sex information leaflet to recruit international students and other young Chinese women into the industry.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a 20-year-old Chinese international student told the Weekend Herald she decided to become a sex worker after being given the Working in New Zealand leaflet, which is produced by the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective.

“It is not easy for international students to find employment in New Zealand, and reading the brochure made me feel less afraid of getting into sex work,” she said in Mandarin.

Older, more experienced prostitutes hand the booklets to young Chinese women.

The brochure spells out, in Chinese and English, exactly how to start working in the sex industry – including advice on what to wear, getting started, how to select a working name and how to perform sex tricks.

“Young Asian girls are being recruited by older sex workers, who use us to get new customers, and work with them to provide a bi-double service to make more money,” she said.

Working privately from a North Shore City suburb, the business student, who came to New Zealand on a student permit, said she knew of at least three other Chinese students – not all on student permits – who turned to sex work after receiving the leaflets. The brochures are readily available for pickup at the reception counter at the collective’s Auckland office in Karangahape Rd, but they are also distributed by its volunteers and staff.

Read more at The Press Trust of India…

Prostitution racket run by ’spiritual’ centre busted

Delhi Police today claimed to have busted a prostitution racket being run at a ’spiritual’ centre with the arrest of two alleged pimps and six women, including two air-hostesses.

One of the arrested persons had set up a ‘temple’ in south Delhi’s Khanpur, police said.

Six women were arrested, including two air-hostesses, one an MBA student and an aspiring Bollywood actress.

The racket was unearthed yesterday after police received inputs about the pimps and sex workers who were to come to PVR Saket. A Sub-Inspector was sent as a decoy customer and after a deal was struck, police swooped down and arrested them.

A stunning development across the pond!  Read more at The Telegraph…

Brothels and prostitutes to be banned from advertising
By Heidi Blake

Massage parlours and escort agencies will be banned from advertising their services in newspapers under Government plans to stifle the sex industry.

Publications carrying advertisements for prostitution could be fined £10,000 under the new law, which will be put forward in Labour’s election manifesto.

The assault on the sex industry is being led Harriet Harman, the women’s minister, and Vera Baird, the solicitor general, amid concerns that many of the advertisements are offering women who have been forced into prostitution by criminal gangs.

A request by the Newspaper Society to remove the adverts in 2008 has had only partial success, with many publications continuing to print them.

The Crown Prosecution Service has already studied a similar law in Ireland and concluded that it could work in the UK.

Mrs Baird said: “It is now appropriate to move against people who make money from advertising prostitutes. The Newspaper Society tightened its guidance on taking such ads but there is still a market that we now have to look to legislation to disrupt.”

A survey of London’s sex industry commissioned in 2008 by Poppy Project, a government-funded group that helps trafficked women, estimated that the 921 brothels it examined made at least £86m a year through their newspaper advertisements alone.

The new law would set clear guidelines about which advertisements will be banned by defining the difference between brothels masquerading as massage parlours and spas offering therapeutic massages.

Advertisements for sex phone lines, carried in many tabloid newspapers, would not fall under the law unless they were a front for arranging prostitution.

It would also become a criminal offence to print cards advertising prostitutes for distribution in telephone boxes and shop windows. Under the current law, it is only an offence to be caught in the act of posting such a card.

Now, that’s a heck of a headline! Read more at The West Australian…

Spain breaks up Voodoo prostitution ring

Police have arrested nine people accused of forcing Nigerian girls to work as prostitutes on the streets of Barcelona after telling them they had cast Voodoo spells on them.

The regional police in the Catalonia region say the girls were smuggled into this country after being lured with bogus job offers and then forced to work off debts of up to 50,000 euros ($A76,810) in the space of six months.

A police statement released on Friday says the nine detainees are all Nigerian and were arrested on Tuesday after an investigation that began nine months ago.

It says the gang cast spells on girls who believed in Voodoo, making them think terrible things would happen to them or their families if they did not keep silent about the smuggling ring and remain loyal to it.

Read more at The Province…

64 charges against prostitutes, johns in Calgary sting
By Sherri Zickefoose

A city-wide prostitution sting has seen 64 charges laid against johns and sex trade workers.

Police also have seized 25 cars from johns caught soliciting prostitutes, a penalty provided for in Alberta law.

Police made arrests on nine outstanding warrants as they operated the two-week undercover sting.

First-time johns can get their cars back after performing community service, but those who get caught more than once could see their vehicles seized by the Alberta government and auctioned off.