Media coverage - English Collective of Prostitutes

Media coverage

22nd March 2007

Morning Star: Coalition decries plans for a “zero-tolerance” policy on street prostitution

WOMEN’S safety campaigners warned on Thursday that Ipswich local authorities’ plans for a “zero-tolerance” policy on street prostitution will compromise prostitutes’ safety. The Safety First coalition, which is co-ordinated by the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP), warned that the proposals replicated almost exactly those in place before the horrific murder of five street prostitutes in […]

24th January 2007

The Guardian: Letter – safety is the priority for sex workers

Julie Bindel’s obsession with male sexuality hides that it is women’s poverty and lack of viable economic alternatives that keep prostitution alive (Not a service like any other, January 16). Most sex workers are mothers and young people struggling to survive. Even government research found that “74% of women working indoors cited the need to […]

13th January 2007

The Guardian: Letter – mean streets, on what forces women into prostitution

Dear Sir,My interview (Mean Streets, 13 January 07) on what forces women into prostitution, takes what I said about pimps and Black men out of context.The interviewer asked if there were pimps and drug suppliers, and if they were mostly Black men. I said I didn’t know any drug dealers or pimps and that the […]

11th December 2006

BBC News: Ipswich murder probe amnesty call

A sex workers’ support group has called for an amnesty for prostitutes and clients after three women were found dead and two reported missing. The naked bodies of Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol and a third woman were found near Ipswich over the past eight days. Police are also looking for prostitutes Annette Nicholls and Paula […]

11th December 2006

Daily Mail: Prostitutes urge an amnesty with police amid serial killer fears

Niki Adams of the English Collective of Prostitutes has asked for a temporary amnesty with the police to allow workers and their clients to come forwardVice girls fearing they may be targeted by a serial killer are urging the police to launch an amnesty.Given their long-held mistrust of the police the offer hand-in-hand with the […]

17th July 2006

BBC Suffolk: Safety first?

There’s been criticism from sex workers about the Suffolk police strategy of getting sex workers off the streets of Ipswich. It’s being claimed it’s moving the problem elsewhere rather than tackling the root causes. The murders of five women in Suffolk in 2006 has put the county in the centre of the debate about how […]

17th May 2006

The Voice: Letter – deportation is the real story

ON May 15 The Voice (‘Sex Slaves Freed’) reported on the joint police/immigration Operation Pentameter which claims to have freed 19 victims of sex trafficking. But police are reportedly arranging with charities to return some of the women to Malaysia. Deportation is the reality behind the headlines.The Poppy Project, set up to deal with victims […]

19th January 2006

The Guardian: Letter – plans threaten vulnerable sex workers

Dear Sir or Madam,Ninety-five per cent of sex workers are not drug users — not even the Home Office claims that (Guardian 18 Jan 2006) women who don’t use drugs don’t use the Home office funded projects on which these figures depend. These figures dominate while the major factors that force women into prostitution – poverty, domestic violence, homelessness […]

17th January 2006

BBC News: New plan to permit small brothels

The law could be changed to allow two prostitutes and a receptionist or maid to work together legally in brothels, the government has confirmed.Currently only lone prostitutes can offer sex from flats or other premises without breaking the law.Launching the new prostitution strategy for England and Wales, minister Fiona Mactaggart said that working in groups […]

6th October 2005

Camden New Journal: Letter – these attacks could have been stopped

Letters to the Editor The inquiry into ‘Camden Ripper’ Anthony Hardy, held in private, which exonerated the psychiatrists, did not go far enough into Hardy’s previous violence or the authorities’ responsibility for not prosecuting him earlier. Yet he was known to hate women, particularly prostitute women, had a history of extreme violence and hospital staff […]