Trafficking
Women trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation from the Far
East are taken to London, Manchester, Glasgow and Erie.( Superintendent Michael Hoskins
"Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation: Assessment of the Current Threat
Within Central London" Metroploitan Police Service (June 1996)
Cases
One hundred Brazilian women, aged between 18 and 25, were promised work in London, as
nannies, maids, dancers, escorts by Carlos Pires and his girlfriend. Once in the UK, they
were prostituted to 10 to 15 men in 12-hour sessions, six to seven days a week. The
women's passports and travel documents were confiscated so they could not get away. From
the minimum charge of £250 for sex, the women were allowed to keep £50-60. Each woman
was charged £7, 500-9, 000 for being brought to the UK and £350-450 a week for
accommodation and expenses. (European Race Audit Bulletin N0 25, Institute of Race
Relations, London UK, 25 November 1997)
In London, Glasgow, Manchester and Dublin, Chinese Triads keep 10 women in each house;
they are only allowed out with a minder. (European Race Audit Bulletin No. 25,
Institute of Race Relations, London UK. 25 November 1997)
Escort agencies in the back of listing magazines offer 'a selection of international
girls'. The women at one company said that for a minimum of £220 she could send over a
selection of Russian escorts (Independent 11.8.97).
100 women were trafficked for prostitution from remote villages in Brazil to London
over a 5-year period. The women were held under debt bondage. The trafficker made £5
million profit. (Superintendent Michael Hoskins "Trafficking in Women for Sexual
Exploitation: Assessment of the Current Threat Within Central London" Metroploitan
Police Service (June 1996)
A Lithuanian man brought approximately 55 women from Russia to the UK to be prostituted
in flats in central London. The cover for this operation was a car import/export business.
(Superintendent Michael Hoskins "Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation:
Assessment of the Current Threat Within Central London" Metroploitan Police Service
(June 1996)
In a raid in six separate Triad-run brothels in London, 10 women from Malaysia, Hong
Kong and Thailand were found. They were prostituted in 12-14 hour shifts, seven days a
week. The women were given only a small percentage of the fee; from which was deducted
airfares, rent and meals. Their identification papers were confiscated. (European Race
Audit Bulletin No 25, Institute of Race Relations, London UK. 25 November 1997)
Methods and Techniques of
Traffickers
Chinese triads are trafficking women into the UK. They bring women in as tourists, or
on bogus travel documents from Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong to be prostitutes in
Central London brothels. Many of the women are held as virtual prisoners, through debt
bondage. They work 12 to 14 hour shifts, seven days a week, earning a very small
percentage of what men pay. Their passports/ false identity cards are taken from them.
(Superintendent Michael Hoskins "Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation:
Assessment of the Current Threat Within Central London" Metroploitan Police Service
(June 1996)
Prostitution
Hong Kong Triad gangs and Eastern European gangsters are trying to take
over and expand Britian's sex industry. (European Race Audit Bulletin No 25,
Institute of Race Relations, London UK. 25 November 1997)
Children as young as 11 are enslaved in prostitution in Bradford. Of 100 girls, under
18, who are in touch with Streets and Lanes Project workers last year, the average age was
14 and the youngest was 11. Older pimps exploit them and lock them up in bedsits and often
deny them access to food or a toilet. The law is failing to protect them. (Sarah Walsh,
"Shock of 11-year-old children enslaved in prostitution," Telegraph &
Argus, 14 July 1998)
Seven prostituted women have been murdered in Glasgow, Scotland since 1991, raising the
possibility of a serial murderer. (Lawrence Donegan, "Seventh Killing of Prostitute
Raises Fears in Red Light Area," The Guardian, 3 March 1998)
50% of women in prostitution have been coerced into the sex industry while under the
age of consent. (Coalition for the Removal of Pimps (CROP) and EXIT, UK)
Cases
Kenneth Valentine, 43, was sentenced to life in prison for the 1996 murder of Caroline
Creevy, a prostitute in Bradford. When police arrested him he had another prostitute
imprisoned in his flat. In 1991 he was convicted of the sex murder of another woman. He
spent 5 years in jail before being released. (Ashley Broadley, "Murderer had another
vice-girl locked in room." Telegraph & Argus, 28 March 1998)
A German was arrested for heading a London-based Internet international prostitution
ring. Women would travel to and from London, New York and Hongkong, and be paid 10,000
francs (US$1,600) an hour or 60,000 francs (US$10,000) a night mainly with Asian
businessmen. Their income went to offshore countries. ("French police uncover
high-class prostitution Internet network," AFP, 4 February 1998)
NGO Action
Government officials have come under attack by children’s rights groups for
treating child victims of sexual exploitation as criminals. The number of children
convicted of child prostitution more than doubled in a year. 210 children aged 17 and
under were convicted of offenses relating to prostitution in 1996 compared to 101 children
in 1995. The number of cases rose from 263 to 287, including one to an 11-year old girl.
(Children’s Society Home Office, "Child prostitution figures double," 29
January 1998)
Policy and Law
In 1997, West Yorkshire police changed their policy to no longer punish children in
prostitution. They now view child prostitutes as children who need care and protection. In
the first 8 months of 1997 no child under 16 was convicted for an offense relating to
prostitution. (Home Office report, England & Wales, Joanne Earp, "Bradford:
Convictions for child prostitution falls dramatically," Telegraph & Argus,
31 January 1998)
Prostituted children in Bradford who try to press charges against the pimps who exploit
them are classified as ‘working girls’ and their evidence is thrown into
question. (Sarah Walsh, "Shock of 11-year-old children enslaved in
prostitution," Telegraph & Argus, 14 July 1998)
In 1997, the police in Bradford, UK started a policy of charging men using young girls
for prostitution with child abuse and treating the girl as an abused child. (Edith M.
Lederer, Associated Press, 16 May 1997)
Official Corruption and Collaboration
Policemen, social workers and prominent public figures were accused of belonging to a
pedophile ring that physically and sexually abused children in their homes in North Wales.
(Nick Davies, "Public figures named in pedophile ring," The Guardian,
October 15th, 1997)
Prostitution Tourism
Britain is one of the worst sex tourism offenders. Approximately 24 British pedophiles
are known to live in Thailand. (Child Care Agencies, UK police join fight against Thai
child sex tourism, BBC, 9 December 1997)
Men from Australia and Great Britain are primary suspects as perpetrators of child
prostitution in the Philippines. Two of the three-pedophilia cases recently decided by
Philippine courts involved British nationals, although there are reportedly more
Australian suspects. (Philippines News Agency, 2 September 1997)
Philippine courts last year sentenced two Britons to up to 17 years in jail for
paedophilia. (AFP, 9 November 1997)
Britain has listed over 5,000 to 6,000 known paedophile tourists. India, Sri Lanka,
Thailand, Philippines, Brazil, Mexico, Agrentina and some Arab countries are the most
favoured destinations of sex tourists. ("Global law to punish sex tourists sought by
Britain and EU," The Indian Express, 21 November 1997)
Case
British rock star, Sting, bought a woman for a lap dance at the topless club Flash
Dancers in New York City. He is also reported to have been a sex tourist in Manilla,
Philippines where he visited a strip bar. (New York Post, March 2, 1998)
Official Response and Action
British police authorities are working with Thai authorities to curb the problem of
child sex tourism. British officers spent a week training Thai colleagues and comparing
information about British pedophiles in Thailand. (UK police join fight against Thai child
sex tourism, BBC, 9 December 1997)
British police experts gave a training course in Manilla for Filipino police officers
on how to deal with child and female victims of abuse. Twenty-one participants spent four
weeks learning the latest methods of investigating cases of child abuse and domestic
violence, dealing with child victims, and searching and forensic techniques. (British
Embassy, AFP, 9 November 1997)
Scotland Yard recently launched special workshops in Colombo to train specialist police
teams from Sri Lanka and India, Pakistan and Nepal on how to unearth and then deal with
child sex offenders. ("Global law to punish sex tourists sought by Britain and
EU," The Indian Express, 21 November 1997)
Pornography
Computer sex kiosks giving access to Internet pornography are coming to
British pubs and clubs. A Sussex-based computer firm Websown plans to install 1,200 sex
booths in 1999. ("Two Sex Kiosks to Open in Pubs and Clubs," World
Entertainment, 31 May 1998)
781 complaints to Internet Watch Foundation resulted in the removal of 2000 items of
child pornography since 1996. Six percent of the illegal material originated from British
Internet sites, 63% from the US. ("Child sex images removed by watchdog,"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_61000/61740.stm, 3 March 1998)
Cases
A man employed with the British Defense Ministry Research Laboratory was suspended from
his job after investigators found 170,000 pornographic images he had downloaded from the
Internet onto his computer, some featuring sex with children and animals. ("Britain:
Defence scientist suspended over Internet porn," Agence France Presse, 21 June
1998)
Paul Gadd of Great Britain, known as rock star Gary Glitter, is facing 50 charges of
child pornography and been charged with 5 sexual offenses against two minor girls.
("Gary Glitter faces further child sex charges," Sydney Morning Herald, 6
May 1998)
Rock singer Gary Glitter was charged with child pornography after indecent images were
found on his home computer when he took it to be repaired. ("Glitter Charged With
Child Porno," Associated Press Online, 30 March 1998)
Timothy Spring, student of University of Central Lancashire, plead guilty to operating
an international computer pornography network that included child pornography. He used an
American Internet account to avoid UK laws prohibiting his activity. ("The Big Issue
in the North: Coming up from the streets," Number196, 9-15 February 1998)
Stuart Hulse, of Manchester, pleaded guilty to the 1996 murder of a woman he killed
while forcing her to act out violent scenes similar to a pornographic film he had seen
earlier that night. ("Man pleads guilty to killing woman acting out porn film, the
Guardian, 17 January 1998)
Official Response and Action
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook used the weight of the presidency of the European
Union to draft a plan of action to combat Internet child pornography. ("Britain
endorses European drive to wipe child porn from Internet," Agence France-Presse,
6 April 1998)
Organized and Institutionalized Sexual
Exploitation and Violence
Prosecutions for sex crimes against young girls have fallen dramatically
over 10 years, sugesting that laws governing age consent are disregarded. In 1985 there
were 138 prosecutions of men who had sex unlawfully with girls under 13 but only 77 in
1995. In 1986 162 men were cautioned or found guilty of having sex with girls under 13,
compared with only 94 in 1996. In 1986 there were 1,426 successful prosecutions of men who
had sex with girls aged 14 and 15, compared with 576 in 1996. (Celia Hall, "Fall in
sex crime points to crisis in consent law," London Telegraph, 24 February
1998)
More than 300 people have reported systematic physical, sexual and emotional abuse over
a period of 40 years, at 6 children’s homes in Aberdeen, Lanarkshire, Glasgow, and
Midlothian, run by Catholic nuns. (Jim Mclean, "The Roman Catholic Church Faces 12
Million Pounds (US $19.8 Million) Claim Over Scotish Child Abuse Scandal," Scotland
on Sunday, 25 December 1997)