In May 2015, a Romanian woman was arrested for loitering for the purposes of prostitution while walking down a road in North London with a friend. The reason given by police for the arrest was that her friend was carrying condoms. She wanted to contest the charge because she wasn’t working at the time so contacted the ECP. We established that the police had not followed the procedure laid down in the Street Offences Act 1959, (updated in the Policing and Crime Act (PCA) 2009) of issuing two “prostitute” cautions before arrest. We found her a lawyer who made representations to the Crown Prosecution Service and on her second appearance at Highbury Magistrates Court in June, the charges were dropped.

Arbitrary ‘Prostitute Cautions’ Are Chaining British Sex Workers to the Streets, (Vice Magazine 6 March 2015)

Follow