Written submission from The Hull Lighthouse Project (PTN0007)

The Hull Lighthouse project has been established for over 23 years, we work to support women affected by prostitution with a particular emphases in those involved in on street sex work. I have worked for the project for 15 years and have a wide knowledge of the issues these women face.

The levels of rape, physical and sexual violence faced by women street sex working have been widely documented but are difficult to overestimate.  In fact, the Lighthouse Project was set up around the time four working women from Hull were murdered in one year, not by a serial killer but by their own partners. For me, it is often the causal way women speak about the dangers that is most disturbing. For example, the woman who told me that every time she gets in a car to “do business”, she pulls out a strand of her hair and places it under the car seat so that there is DNA evidence she has been in the car in case no other trace to what has happen to her can be found.

Another example was a rape case earlier this year: - The police reported to us that a woman had been found early hours of the morning walking barefoot on a major road into the city. The woman had been taken by the man for sex to an area outside the city that is frequently used for these purposes. He turned violent and raped her. She’d made her escape naked from the waist down and was spotted by another driver. We gave her extra support through giving evidence and at the trial, in addition to the regular support we give her. She is a woman we have known for many years who has suffered some quite horrendous trauma and made several attempts to take her own life. One of these attempts left her hospitalised for three months with permanent skeletal damage and possible brain injuries affecting her memory. The police gave us a description of the man and the vehicle which we showed to the woman we meet on evening outreach. That very night, before I’d managed to speak to anyone about it, a woman told me that a different woman had also been raped a few days previously and that she had recognised the car as the one belonging to a man who had attacked her; an attack she wouldn’t have spoken of if it hadn’t been for the second assault, which turned out to be by the same person. Two nights later another woman reported being anally raped so aggressively that she was finding it very painful to walk; this was a totally separate incident and the man hasn’t been traced. When the first case came to trial, the man was found guilty and given an eight year sentence in his absence, as he’d been released on bail and disappeared. I use these examples to indicate the frequency of assaults these women face.

Obviously these violent attacks and the stresses caused by putting yourself at repeated risk of danger cause long term psychological damage. Most women we support have severe anxiety and depression, many struggle with hearing voices, visual hallucinations and talk about reliving traumatic events. Even though they find it extremely hard to get mental health support, several have been diagnosed with Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder. Other harms can be more subtle; one woman, who hadn’t street worked for several years and whose life appeared back on track, said when speaking about another woman “well you can’t expect women like us to ever find a normal man”. Self-esteem is one of the first victims and the one of the last to be regained.

The label of prostitution can be hard to live with; one woman’s daughter was featured on a programme about children living in poverty back in 2014. At some point there was mention that mum did sex work to help make ends meet, this lead to the child being pointed out as “that prossy’s daughter”, graffiti outside the house and verbal abuse from the neighbours to the extent that she has just had to move for a second time.  There is no way this can be regarded as just a job like any other. At its best sexual intercourse is a beautiful, intimate, creative act; to regard it as a commodity debases our humanity.

In the Hull area, there have been many changes and improvements to services supporting these women over the past 20 or so years.  Most agencies now work together far more than in the past; we have representatives from nine separate agencies coming out on evening outreach with us. This helps the women build up trust in other people, a major factor in promoting change. It makes such a difference if they are seen by someone they are familiar with when they go to get help. I have recently changed the way I work so that I’m out two evenings a week for this reason; I can then do the follow up and introduce them to another member of staff and will generally accompany them to their first meeting with another agency, sometimes it’s several times. The biggest leaps forward have come from individual agencies members who are willing to challenge established ways of doing things to remove the hurdles street working women face to getting into service. For example, the representative from the drug service who not only comes out with us but has pushed for drop-in fast-track access to treatment, twice weekly, late afternoon.  The key is developing trust and positive relationship with people who have little or no experience of it.

Another important positive change has come from the local police force. Many years ago, the police had a prostitution liaison officer, whose role was both to support and help the women move away from street working and to enforce the law. This led to a great deal of confusion and she would act in one way one week and another the next so trust was totally broken between the police and the women. As in main cities, attempts were made to impose ASBO’s on the women but this wasn’t supported by the local magistrates, who recognised how inappropriate it was to impose fines on working women and that orders were being drawn up banning women form the areas they lived in.

Then, around the year 2009, a number of more enlightened officers began to form what became the Sexual Exploitation Team (SET). They sort advice from local agencies on how we could work together to help women move away from street working, set up regular meetings for all agencies to discuss each woman and the best way to support her. Women were given up to two warning cards, encouraging them to get help, then a red card basically telling them if they didn’t seek help, further action would be taken. In the meantime, they were brought up at the SET meetings, so it rarely got as far as red cards being issued. Those found kerb crawling were given the option of prosecution or attending the Changes course. This course was aimed at challenging attitudes to buying sex and raising awareness of the impact on the women they were using; it proved to be very effective with a very low re-offending rate. Sadly this team was disbanded due to funding cuts right at the time that women were beginning to talk to us about various men, who were showing dangerous tendencies in their behaviour, and they were willing for this information to be forwarded to the police. As ever it seems good effective practice is ended because the benefits unfold slowly and don’t hit oblivious targets. However all was not lost due of the passion of one particular PCSO who was deeply concerned about the safety of the women. She continued the meetings with agencies under the title of On-Street Tactical meetings, developed a small team of PCSO’s to work with her and worked to educate the rest of the police force to the struggles and dangers the women face. She has ensured that the emphasis of policing is on the safety of the women.

Current police enforcement is through a council imposed Section 222 Exclusion Order. This excludes those on which it has been served from engaging in various acts related to street sex work and other anti-social behaviour within a particular area, basically “the red light district” whilst allowing them to carrying out other actives, such as going to the shops. This has proved to be highly controversial with much objection being raised; often from those who don’t realise the activities being banned are illegal anyway. In general, the orders have been imposed sensitively however only on those selling sex not those buying it. When we questioned police officers about this, we were told they hadn’t the resources to go after the men as they were mainly in cars; again the most marginalised being punished while others go free. Hopefully this is about to be resolved by a new police initiative to target the men and the reintroduction of the Changes course.  Although the Section 222 is a more sensitive approach than the old ASBO’s, it has a number of shortfalls. The judge is very limited on the sentences that can be imposed: 1. a fine, inappropriate on street sex workers as they will simply work more to pay the fine. 2. A two weeks imprisonment, which simply disrupts any progress a woman may have made whilst not being long enough to help her address her issues. 3. A conditional discharge, so far the only sentence that has been past.  It would be far more helpful if some form of community sentence could be given, with the possibility to have drug treatment orders included.

Our project has considered the issues of the laws around prostitution over the years. We certainly welcomed the changes that now regard all those under the age of eighteen involved in sex work as being victims of sexual exploitation. We would argue that one cannot turn from a victim to a perpetrator overnight and that support should remain in place as victims become adults. Much has been said about the legalisation or decriminalisation of prostitution but as a project we have no firm position. We understand that in Leeds, under the managed zone, there has been a considerable increase in attacks on sex workers and there are numerous groups of foreign nationals out working, something we don’t see in Hull. On the one hand, we do not want to see victims of sexual exploitation having a criminal record, the factors that lead people into sex work are so complex it is hard to define who is a victim and who is not. On the other hand, when we ask women how they started sex work, a common reply is that they have numerous convictions for shop theft and realised they wouldn’t be convicted for prostitution; we would hate to see more and more people turning to sex work because it was legal. Whatever the way forward, it needs to be a nuanced approach with sensitivity to the ways laws are enforced.

September 2019