The US Navy avoids a black eye. Read more at Yahoo News…

US sailor cleared of assaulting Sydney prostitute

A U.S. Navy serviceman was found not guilty Monday of sexually assaulting a prostitute at a brothel while on shore leave in Australia’s biggest city.

A New South Wales District Court jury cleared the Petty Officer of a charge of sexual intercourse without consent, with the aggravating factor of causing the woman actual bodily harm. The charge carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

The man was one of 3,000 Marines and Navy personnel on shore leave in Sydney after the amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu and guided missile destroyer USS Halsey arrived in the port in October, 2008.

The woman told the court she had protected, consensual sex with the sailor at the brothel where she worked, but said he became aggressive when she told him his time was up and forced her to have unprotected sex. The jury was shown police photographs of scratches on the woman.

The man denied forcing the woman to have sex, but admitted in court that he used a “lock down maneuver” to pin her to the bed when she said she wanted to stop. He told the court he backed off when she kicked him, though he said he muffled her mouth with his hand when she began to scream after he demanded his money back.

Read more at The Courier-Mail…

Illegal prostitution racket cracked

AN illegal prostitution racket on the Gold Coast has been cracked in a series of police raids, resulting in 16 people being charged.

Police carried out the raids over four days, targeting organised illegal prostitution activities operating under the guise of legal massage services.

Five search warrants were executed at business and residential premises located in Broadbeach, Surfers Paradise, Mermaid Beach and Clear Island Waters.

Police seized cash and property totalling $20,990, and charged 16 people on 38 prostitution-related offences.

Read more at The Sydney Morning Herald…

Prostitute’s bite mark was sex play not death struggle, court told

A bite mark on the arm of a murdered Sydney prostitute that matches the dental records of a commercial diver might have been inflicted during intercourse, his lawyer says.

But prosecutors argue Rachael Campbell was bitten as the pair struggled over the knife that killed her, the NSW Supreme Court has been told.

The 29-year-old sex worker’s body was found with multiple stab wounds in the grounds of St Joseph’s Church at Rosebery on November 7, 1998.

Richard Edward Dorrough, 32, was extradicted from Perth to Sydney in January this year after DNA evidence linked him to the death.

Two used condoms, a vaginal swab, DNA on the sheet Ms Campbell’s body was wrapped in and teeth marks matching Dorrough’s dental records placed him at the scene.

As his bail application was heard in the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday, barrister Ertunc Ozen said his client had hired the prostitute for sex, but denies he had anything to do with her death.

“Obviously [the DNA] proves not only some contact with the deceased, but contact of a very specific nature – sexual contact,” Mr Ozen told the court.

“It would not of itself tend to suggest … that the applicant must have been the one to murder this woman.”

The bite mark on her arm – if it was proved to belong to Dorrough – could be explained by sex play, he said.

“There are a number of ways in which a bite mark could be occasioned which have nothing to do with getting a knife,” he said.

Read the whole story at The Courier Mail…

Brisbane strip clubs caught breaking adult entertainment laws
by Patrick Lion

STRIP clubs are being caught breaking adult entertainment laws against a backdrop of sexual assaults on dancers and prostitution claims.

The Courier-Mail can reveal venues are being regularly busted for failing to supervise lap dances, failing to produce the permits allowing the nude entertainment and serving minors on premises.

But tougher measures are being called for after clubs mostly escaped with little more than a warning letter or minimum fines for more serious offences.

The cases are revealed in Liquor Licensing reports obtained under Freedom of Information laws and expose the seedy side of Queensland the Bligh Government rarely talks about.

The incidents at clubs from Cairns to the Gold Coast come two decades after the Fitzgerald Inquiry exposed the thriving illegal practices of brothels and strip clubs centred around Fortitude Valley.

Brisbane CBD club Showgirls faces losing its permit after a raft of incidents, including dancers getting too close to patrons and the alleged rape of a dancer in a VIP room during a performance.

An investigation at The Club of Mount Isa Hotel last April resulted in about $6000 in fines from 16 breaches after dancers were caught brazenly offering sex, using drugs and dodging supervision. “This is the best time as no controllers are out the back to look so anything goes, even maybe full sex,” a Polish dancer called Maria told an inspector.

But industry group EROS Australia admits the cases are likely to be only the tip of the iceberg as Liquor Licensing inspected the 26 venues holding permits only once every seven weeks last year, down from five weeks previously.

Treasurer Andrew Fraser yesterday defended his department’s enforcement, saying many “cowboy outfits” had been removed in recent years.

Mr Fraser said more serious cases were referred to police. “(But we) can only act on incidents that have been reported or uncovered during inspections conducted by either officers or the police,” he said.

“An inspection rate of one visit every seven weeks represents significant enforcement action.”

Looks like some Aussie brothels are billing insurance companies for their sexy services!  Read the whole story at Fox News…

Australia Brothels Billing Insurers for Massages

Dozens of Sydney brothels are passing off sex acts as therapeutic massages and illegally billing health insurers for the services, a newspaper and an official said Monday.

Health funds uncovered the fraud after investigating a Chinese-language newspaper advertisement offering to provide “young attractive masseuse with a health fund rebate,” Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported.

Australian Health Insurance Association spokeswoman Jen Eddy confirmed the article was accurate but said she did not know whether criminal charges would be filed.

“I understand the information is accurate although I cannot identify the fund that carried out the investigation,” she said.

Health Minister Nicola Roxon said her department was investigating the report because public money was involved through government subsidies to health insurance premiums.

“We are interested in public funds being used for health services, and if we have any evidence to the contrary then certainly we would look at how we could take action,” she told reporters.

The newspaper said about 80 massage services in Sydney have been registered by health funds for fraudulent behavior due to the investigation, meaning they can no longer gain insurance rebates for their services.

The article did not say how many of these services were claiming rebates for sex and Eddy could not provide a figure.

Sex services which cost $39 were billed as a massage or acupuncture session and each attracted a health insurance rebate of $26, the newspaper said.

Some businesses were exposed because all their clients were men aged between 36 and 72 years who were charged for acupuncture treatments over consecutive days, the newspaper said.

Some charged insurers for multiple massages or acupuncture sessions when only one was provided so that the customer paid nothing, it said.

A look at how Australia’s approach to prostitution benefits the industry, with a focus on brothels. Read the whole article at The Earth Times…

Brothels help prostitutes stay healthy

Prostitution is regulated differently in Australia’s six states, allowing researchers like Basil Donovan to compare how the industry operates under different rules and the implications for public health. Donovan, from the University of New South Wales, found that sex workers in his state had the lowest incidence of sexually transmitted disease.

If the health of those who work in the industry was the only consideration, he argues, other jurisdictions should fall into line with the biggest state and decriminalize prostitution and deregulate the industry.

“The prevalence of gonorrhoea in sex workers in Sydney is as close as you can get to zero,” Donovan, an internationally recognized expert in sexual health, said.

In his view, persuasion works better than regulation and this explains the sex industry’s low rate of sexually transmitted diseases in New South Wales.

In the neighbouring states of Queensland and Victoria, prostitution is still a criminal offence and brothels have to be licenced. Donovan says this has driven much of the industry out onto the street and made it harder for health programmes to reach prostitutes.

Murder investigations never really go away. This case demonstrates that regardless of personal guilt, being the last person to see a working girl alive can bring a man some unexpected attention. Read the whole story at The Daily Telegraph…

Hunt goes on for escort Revelle Balmain’s final client

THE chief suspect in the 14-year-old murder of Sydney model and part-time escort Revelle Balmain is no longer in Sydney – with homicide detectives last night launching a search for him.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal NSW homicide detectives, who have been reinvestigating the case quietly for the past year, are seeking to speak to Gavin Owen Samer, who is from a affluent Sydney family.

It is understood Samer, who lived in McNair Ave, Kingsford, in the 1990s, no longer lives in Sydney and attempts are being made to locate him.

It is understood Samer is the only remaining suspect in the case and is still believed to be in Australia.

Samer was Ms Balmain’s last known client as a prostitute on the night she disappeared – Saturday, November 5 – and she attended a house he was living in on McNair Ave.

The 22-year-old’s belongings, including a diary and keys, were later found scattered around streets in Kingsford.

Homicide Detective Superintendent Geoff Beresford announced yesterday that police had new information and forensic test results that were a breakthrough in the unsolved case.