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 forward
Vice 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 long arm of the law marks a dramatic shift in the current state of affairs.
But these are desperate times where the priority has “to be protection of women rather than prosecution,” according to Niki Adams of the English Collective of Prostitutes.
She said: “It means that immediately the police should announce an amnesty for a limited period for the area to allow women and their clients to come forward with information, even if they have outstanding offences.
“That in itself is going to be a big job because women do not have confidence in the police because they do not believe them to be trustworthy.
“At this moment in time our priority is on protection not prosecution.”
Fear fills the workers in the red light area in Ipswich, Suffolk.
Their plight is not helped by the antagonism they have for the police.
“Women are very much scared but women do not have the option to leave prostitution,” Ms Adams said.
“Most women are incensed by the police approach to stay home or they have brought it upon themselves saying they have made themselves vulnerable because of the nature of their work.”
The Home Office estimates 80,000 people currently work in the British sex trade, many of them young women brought in illegally from overseas, especially Eastern Europe.