That law degree I got from a Cracker Jack box makes me think there is no client-prostitute privilege.

Read the whole story at The BBC News…

Man ‘told prostitute of murder’

A property developer told a US prostitute he had strangled a man in London because he was “in the way”, a court has heard.

Rebecca DeFalco told the Old Bailey of her relationship with her client Thanos Papalexis, of Palm Beach, Florida.

The body of caretaker Charalambos Christodoulides, 55, was found in 2000 in the warehouse complex where he lived in Kensal Rise, north-west London.

Mr Papalexis, 36, and two of his employees have denied murder.

Failed Kosovan asylum seekers Ylli Xhelo, 36, unemployed, and Robert Baxhija, 29, a painter of Sidney Avenue, Palmers Green, north London, deny murder.

Miss DeFalco said Mr Papalexis told her he worked as a “James Bond” for the British and American governments.

The pair first met in April 2004 when he answered an internet advertisement.

Miss DeFalco described their two-month relationship as “turbo-charged”.

Mr Papalexis asked her to give up other clients and offered her £1,500 at a time, she said.

“He was charming. He was someone I broke all the rules for. I fell hard. I was taken for a ride,” she said.

Following a row she asked him, “Have you ever killed anyone?”.

He allegedly told her, “Yes, I strangled someone. There were two people with me.

“This man was giving me problems. It happened in London. He said he was in the way.

“He didn’t have to go. He was a family man”.

Read the whole story at The BBC News…

Patrols ‘reduce’ prostitution

The demand for street prostitution in Northampton has been cut by police action, police have said.

During the first three months of 2008 police sent out 180 warning letters to men whose cars were seen in suspicious circumstances in the Quorn Way area.

But over the same period in 2009, police have spotted and written to 74 men, despite more frequent patrols.

Officers believe that this reduction is due to the police operation in the area targeting kerb crawlers.

‘Real concern’

Police have distributed posters and beer mats in pubs around the town centre that ask men to consider the possible costs of picking up a prostitute – which could be their job, their driving licence and a £1,000 fine.

Sgt Louise Simpson, who leads Operation Uncanny, said that there are fewer and fewer prostitutes working on the streets in the town.

“Northamptonshire Police are better than ever at targeting and dealing with men who kerb crawl and I think that this has truly resulted in a reduced demand for street prostitution in the area,” she said.

“We have worked hard to tackle street prostitution – with its links to other criminality – and kerb crawling, which causes real concern to local people.”

Some shady goings-on in some hidden brothers, including the ugly face of human trafficking. Read the whole story at The Journal…

Seven ‘rescued’ in North East brothel raids
by Adam Jupp and Laura Caroe

HIDDEN behind drawn curtains and locked doors, the seedy secrets of the region’s sex industry normally go unnoticed. But a series of raids on North East brothels have exposed a murky world of human trafficking and sexual exploitation in our communities.

Officers targeted 14 premises in Jesmond, Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland, Middlesbrough and Darlington and moved to “rescue” seven women suspected of being smuggled into the UK to work as prostitutes.

And The Journal can reveal the sex industry is an emerging issue for police, as global people-trafficking gangs target the region with increasing regularity.

It is understood there are now around 100 people in the care of, or known to social services in Newcastle alone, who have been trafficked into the area. That has increased from roughly 70 four years ago, suggesting more people than ever before are finding themselves being illegally sneaked into the region, where they can be exploited and forced to work as call girls. All of the women attached to the brothels raided this week as part of Operation Caspian were Chinese nationals and UKBA officers are investigating their immigration status and how they came to be here.

A study published recently, commissioned by the Northern Rock Foundation, shed light of the nature of sex work in Northumberland and Tyne and Wear and confirmed there are still no red light zones in either area, compared to other parts of the country, but stated street prostitution was on the rise.

The document reported evidence of prostitutes working out of crack dens, selling themselves for as little as £10. Adult sex work was characterised as ranging from escort agencies advertising in newspapers and on websites to drug-addicted prostitutes and asylum seekers carrying out sex acts in exchange for food or accommodation.

Read the whole story in The Daily Mail…

British Schoolgirl, 15, earning £100,000 a year as an upmarket prostitute
By Paul Sims

A 15-year-old schoolgirl earned almost £100,000 a year working as a high-class prostitute, it was revealed yesterday.

By day the teenager attended classes but at night she was regularly paid hundreds of pounds for sex.

The girl, who cannot be identified because of her age, is believed to have been working for an escort agency based in Newcastle.

She lied about her age before going on to earn £1,700 a week, meeting dozens of men on school nights and at the weekend.

Her double life was exposed in November when a suspicious teacher searched her schoolbag and found condoms, a card with the name of her pimp and details of the agency she worked for.

The school alerted police and officers later searched the £200,000 family home in South Tyneside, finding £8,060 in cash hidden in the loft, a court heard.

Detectives believe she was paid £14,000 in just two months but have not been able to recover the remaining £6,000.

Her parents, aged 44 and 46, were originally arrested on suspicion of inciting child prostitution but have since been released without charge.

The £8,000 found by police was confiscated under the Proceeds of Crime Act during a brief hearing at South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court on February 13.

Asa Anderson, from Northumbria Police, told the court: ‘The money was seized after police received a phone call from a school where a teacher found a pupil’s bag. The bag was found containing certain items.’

The girl, from Eastern Europe, is now being cared for by child protection agencies.

She is understood to have arrived in the UK with her mother in the past few years.

Police sources said she looked older than 15 and was able to dupe the escort agency into believing she was 18. The identity of the agency involved has not been revealed and police are still investigating.

Had she not been caught she would have gone on to earn £84,000 in a single year.

And police believe her earning potential would have risen over £100,000 through entertaining more clients as she grew older.

A look at the world’s oldest profession during the holidays.  Read the whole article at The BBC…

Christmas under city’s red lights
By Tom Bishop

Most of us look forward to a rest over Christmas but thousands of Londoners will work during the holiday season – including many of the city’s sex workers.

In 2008 the sex worker has been portrayed as the exploited victim of trafficking and as the high class escort Belle de Jour, played by Billie Piper in ITV1’s Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

But London’s massage parlours, saunas, brothels and streets are the work places of a much wider range of women and men.

The International Union of Sex Workers (IUSW) includes middle-aged parlour owners, men who sell sex to men and girls who work on the street with drug addiction problems, among its members.

And, like all workers, they face extra financial pressure at Christmas, says IUSW spokeswoman Catherine Stephens.

“January is usually quiet so many sex workers will work more during November and December to get extra money for their kids’ presents,” she explained.

Very few women work on the street on Christmas Day as clients are unlikely to be there, Miss Stephens said.

“But massage parlours have been known to get incredibly busy on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day.

“I guess some men feel they have been cooped up with their family for 36 hours and want to get out.”

It is not illegal to sell or pay for sex in England but many activities associated with prostitution – such as running a brothel, persistent kerb-crawling and advertising in phone boxes – are illegal.

Some insights into the plight of a Sri Lankan Madam in business in the UK.  Tamil Eelam reports…

Lankan Lady runs brothel in UK
By John Peter

Yasmin Desilva, a Sri-Lanka-born Sinhalese lady, received a nine-month suspended prison sentence for running a brothel in Bournemouth, UK, and also was ordered to pay £15,000 at a confiscation hearing.

Judge John Harrow warned Desilva, 34, that if she did not pay up within four months she would face being jailed for 12 months.

Earlier Bournemouth Crown Court heard how Desilva had been arrested after police stumbled across the brothel while executing a drugs warrant. A mother-of-three who ran a brothel from a terraced house in Bournemouth made £55,890 from immoral earnings, a court heard.

Officers discovered huge quantities of condoms, business cards offering escort and massage services, sex toys and accounts books. With Desilva, there was “a maid” responsible for meeting and greeting clients, answering the phone and cleaning, two English women and a Lithuanian girl.

The court was told that Desilva was paying £250 rent and spending around £400 on advertising each week. She was estimated to have made a profit of around £500 a day. Desilva, of Windham Road, Springbourne, pleaded guilty to managing a brothel between July 4, 2004 and June 9, 2007.

Judge Harrow told her: “You ran an illegal business as you must have known from the outset. It was clearly profitable but it has to be said there is no suggestion that you coerced or compelled any of these women to participate.

“These working girls were there of their own free will, sharing the profits with you.” Desilva was also ordered to complete 100 hours unpaid community work.

The use of drugs and child prostitution are an everyday occurrence in Sri Lankan Capital Colombo and other Sinhalese areas in the south of the island. The child prostitution is carried out with the blessings of those with direct links in the higher echelons of the Sri Lankan Government, a news reports say.

Another look at the burgeoning bordello business in the UK.  The Romford Recorder reports…

Shock report into borough’s brothels

HAVERING has more advertised brothels than traditional inner city hotspots, and 80 per cent operate from people’s homes, a report says.

Undercover researchers posed as customers to find Havering had 27 brothels advertised – far higher than traditional hotspots such as Islington, with 21, and Hackney, 18.

They also warned it was “simply the tip of the iceberg”.

The report, Big Brothel: A Survey of the Off-Street Sex Industry by Eaves Housing for Women, exclusively revealed Havering’s illegal sex industry findings to the Recorder.

They show 65 per cent of brothels were in private flats, 15 per cent in houses, 15 per cent in massage parlours, and five per cent in saunas.

There were 48 women, aged 19 to 50, providing prostitution services.

Twenty-two ethnicities were found, with the highest proportions from India and the UK.The six-month investigation, which included all London boroughs, involved male researchers phoning brothels and asking questions about women and services available.

Westminster had the highest number of advertised brothels with 71, and Southwark had the lowest with eight. Havering came 14th on the list of 35 boroughs.