United Kingdom

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)

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," 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)

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)