UK P4P News

Last month, a California judge tentatively ruled that he would dismiss charges lodged by California's attorney general against Backpage.com's chief executive and two of its former owners. After an interim scare, the judge has now issued a final judgement confirming the previous ruling and the charges have been dismissed.

The CEO, Carl Ferrer was charged with pimping a minor, pimping, and conspiracy to commit pimping in connection to online advertisements posted on the online ads portal. California's attorney general  Kamala Harris claimed that advertisements amounted to solicitation of prostitution.

However Judge Michael Bowman agreed with the defendants, including former owners Michael Lacey and James Larkin, that they were protected, among other things, by the Communications Decency Act, and hence they were not liable for third-party ads posted by others. The ruling said:

By enacting the CDA, Congress struck a balance in favor of free speech by providing for both a foreclosure from prosecution and an affirmative defense at trial for those who are deemed an internet service provider.

Update: Double Jeopardy

26th December. See  article from theguardian.com

California attorney general Kamala Harris is pursuing new charges against Backpage.com website

The fresh charges, which attorney general Kamala Harris claims are based on new evidence, come after an earlier case against the website was thrown out of court.

The website advertises escort services and seems t have wound up Harris who claimed that the site operated a hotbed of illicit and exploitative activity .

Harris said she had charged Backpage executives Carl Ferrer, Michael Lacey and James Larkin with 13 counts of pimping and conspiracy to commit pimping. They also are charged with 26 counts of money laundering. In the latest case, filed in Sacramento County superior court, Harris claims Backpage illegally funnelled money through multiple companies and created various websites to get around banks that refused to process transactions. (This does not seem a particularly surprising, or necessarily bad thing to do).

She also alleged that the company used photos of women from Backpage on other sites without their permission in order to increase revenue and knowingly profited from the proceeds of prostitution. And from what Harris said in a statement it seems that hers is a morality campaign against sex work. Harris said:

By creating an online brothel -- a hotbed of illicit and exploitative activity -- Carl Ferrer, Michael Lacey, and James Larkin preyed on vulnerable victims, including children, and profited from their exploitation.

Warning: Fake News Alert: When did politicians ever care about a robust evidence base when issues of morality are at stake?

In July the Home Affairs Committee said soliciting for sex in England and Wales should no longer be a criminal offence. MPs also suggested sex workers should be able to share premises rather than risk working alone.

However such policies are way to liberal for the government and so they have commissioned another research report, no doubt hoping that it will reach a more proscriptive solution. After all there are still lots of men to jail for the heinous crime of simply trying to enjoy the pleasures of life.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has said that a robust evidence base was needed before policy changes were addressed. And so another Home Office research project has been commissioned and will report back next June. Rudd commented that any government response should include:

Ensuring those involved in prostitution and sex work are safeguarded, that traffickers and those who exploit vulnerable people can be effectively targeted, and ensuring that community concerns about prostitution and sex work can be addressed.

Greater Manchester Police have closed down one Manchester's well-known and long established massage parlours - Sandy's Superstars.

Both branches, Prestwich and Northenden, of the infamous and popular parlour were raided simultaneously and computer equipment and paperwork were seized.

Sandy's Superstars was thrown into the national spotlight in 2010 when The Mirror, among other tabloids, revealed that the Sister of George Sampson who had won Britain's Got Talent, was working as an escort there after being outed by the newspaper's own undercover sting .

Threads on so-called 'punting' forums - online communities where customers discuss their experiences with working girls and sex establishments - one such thread on UKPunting asked what was wrong with the parlour's phone lines which were reported to be engaged minutes after the police arrived.

Neighbors were alerted by the high police presence in the area along the busy stretches of raod that both parlours buildings are situated on. The following morning the business' main web site was offline.

 A police spokesperson said;

Police executed warrants at two suspected brothels; one on Bury Old Road in Prestwich and one on Palatine Road in Northenden.

The spokesperson also confirmed that during the two coordinated raids the officers had arrested "seven people" on suspicion of "managing a brothel and money laundering" but have since bailed the individuals. Charges have not yet been filed.

The thread on UKPunting's forums highlight the concern some have for the industry with many saying they believe Sandy's Superstars to be the most professionally ran parlour probably in the UK.

The parlour has been in operation for over 20 years and was started by a former working girl - Sandy. They opt to only have English women on the books and offer a safe and clean environment for their women to work.

Whilst it is not illegal to sell or buy sex in the UK it is illegal to run, manage or profit from a brothel (deemed to be a place where more than one working girl is working). However it is largely left to the local policing teams to enforce the law often choosing to tolerate peaceful businesses rather than close them down.

GMP have often carried out 'welfare' visits to Manchester-based parlours to ensure the women were consensually working there and that there were no drugs or illegal workers on site.

A sex worker's group, SCOT-PEP, has accused Police Scotland of using 'support, health and wellbeing' (SHAW) visits as a cover for raids in an attempt to criminalise those involved in the sex industry. Police have been turning up at the homes of known sex workers unannounced to deliver 'support' or 'advice' to people who sell sex.

SCOT-PEP co-chair Nadine Stott said:

In a legal context where the police prosecute sex workers, it's completely inappropriate to use police surveillance and unannounced police visits to deliver 'support' or 'advice' to people who sell sex.

We have now seen that part of Police Scotland's own remit with regards to Operation SHAW is to 'identify other criminality'. For sex workers in our network, this raises the frightening possibility that Police Scotland are conducting surveillance and surprise home visits on sex workers under the veneer of offering 'help and support', while in fact looking for opportunities to criminalise sex workers for drug use, immigration offences or anything else they can find.

In an attempt to assist sex workers, SCOT-PEP has published know your rights cards for sex workers in Romanian, Thai, Portuguese, Polish and Mandarin

Police have informed another sex worker group called Encompass who are working with the SHAW scheme that no women have been prosecuted as a result of any SHAW visit. Detective Chief Inspector Stuart Houston, head of Police Scotland's Human Trafficking Unit, said:

Police Scotland is committed to improving the safety and wellbeing of people, localities and communities. It is recognised that many males and females involved in prostitution are there as a result of force or a perception of limited alternatives. It is also acknowledged that other persons may have freely chosen to be involved in prostitution.

SHAW (Support, Health and Wellbeing) visits were introduced by Police Scotland and our partners to improve our multi-agency response to 'off-street' prostitution. Visits are victim-centred as opposed to enforcement being a priority. The methodology has been developed through collaboration between Police Scotland and key partner agencies.

Protest organised by the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) with Sex Workers Open University and Sex Workers' Opera
Monday 24 October, 12-1pm
Home Office, 2 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DF

Six premises in Chinatown and Soho, where sex workers were working, were raided on Thursday night. 18 people were arrested. 12 women have been removed on immigration grounds. Many immigrant sex workers work in Soho, most of them mothers supporting families in the UK and other countries. Thai women were particularly targeted in these raids.

Police slapped closure notices on the doors of premises and threw women out onto the street. The police and Westminster council claim the raids were to save trafficked women, and crack down on prostitution and drugs. But yet again no victims were found. Flats opposite gentrified areas were targeted for closure and police took £35,000 in cash, fuelling suspicions that profiteering and land grabs are behind the raids. Women called the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) saying that the raids have left them terrified.

ECP's Laura Watson commented:

Yet again anti-trafficking policies are being used to justify raids and deportations against immigrant sex workers. Some women in the area suffered violent attacks and robberies in recent months but the police did nothing. Instead police resources are being squandered on raiding women working together in the relative safety of flats. We are living in very harsh times with more women, particularly mothers, having to sell sex to ensure their children are fed. Why isn't the government taking action to rein in the police, stop the raids and prioritise women's safety? Benefit sanctions and other cuts have left women destitute and must be repealed.

Ms Watson was interviewed yesterday on Woman's Hour about a new report documenting huge increases in women selling sex for basic survival. This scandal has come to national attention since Ken Loach's award-winning film I, Daniel Blak e launched this week. It tells the story of Katie, a single mother going into prostitution after she and her two children are made destitute:

After the arrests last night, four women and one man were charged with controlling prostitution -- an offence which penalises anyone who associates or works alongside sex workers. Closure Notices have been endorsed by the courts yesterday morning ensuring that women had no time to challenge them, in breach of their legal rights.

Police crackdowns like this are happening all over the UK. Research by the ECP shows that between April and September this year there have been at least 50 closures of premises with hundreds of women criminalised. This targeting of women must stop.

Video Reports: Sex workers protest against police raids in Soho

26th October 2016. See video from prostitutescollective.net