Cari Mitchell on the campaign to increase safety for women working in flats in London’s Soho district Your review of Hot Stew, a novel set amid the brothels of Soho (10 March) condemns as “disastrous” the forms of protest attempted by the prostitutes. But in real life, a sex worker-led campaign of meetings and marches, pickets and protests […]
Sex workers in Mayfair have been part of the ECP’s network since 2009 when police raided flats without warrants, bullying and threatening prosecution. In the same year, Westminster Council threatened women with closure of the flats under planning law on the grounds that they were residential properties being used for a business. Then a few […]
Police have arrested more than 400 people for allegedly keeping brothels since 2017, according to figures obtained by Sky News. By Alexa Phillips, news reporter Hundreds of people have been arrested for alleged brothel-keeping offences in the last four years under laws that sex workers claim put them at risk. Police forces have detained at […]
Article written by:Frankie Miren For 12 days in late 1982 the English Collective of Prostitutes occupied a church in King’s Cross to protest police brutality. Frankie Miren interviews women who were at the centre of the dispute, and explores explores the legacy of their action today. It’s November 1982 and you wake up on the […]
Redbridge Council’s efforts to reduce prostitution are a “complete disgrace” that will endanger vulnerable women, an activist group has warned.The English Collective of Prostitutes (ECOP) has claimed that a £20,000 trial to change the mindset and behaviour of those soliciting sex will only force sex workers into more dangerous situations.The trial, announced earlier this month, […]
All charges were eventually dropped against the migrant women, whose case was fought by the English Collective of Prostitutes. Due to current laws around brothel-keeping, some women are too fearful to work together at the same location and as a result often compromise their safety by working alone. Two sex workers who were dragged through the courts for sharing […]
In September 2019, two Brazilian women, Ms O and Ms R, were working together in a flat for safety when they were raided by the police. The police confiscated their phones, ID, and money totaling around £1000 (without leaving a receipt). They were initially charged with brothel-keeping. The ECP organised informal translation from a woman […]
MIGRANT women who faced conviction for “using their premises as a brothel” have had charges against them under the Sexual Offences Act withdrawn.The women, known as Ms O and Ms R, said they were providing sex work in a flat together for safety to support their families.The English Collective of Prostitutes’ (ECP) Laura Watson said […]
By Aaron WalawalkarMembers of the English Collective Prostitute celebrate outside Staines Magistrates Court after the CPS dropped charges against two Brazilian migrants. Credit: Crossroads AV CollectiveThe Crown Prosecution Service has dropped its charges against two migrant women who faced conviction for letting each other use their shared flat to do sex work.Ms O and Ms R […]
Today charges were withdrawn against two women (named here as Ms O and Ms R) who were facing conviction for “a tenant permitting premises to be used as a brothel” (S35 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956).Laura Watson, English Collective of Prostitutes, which has supported the women throughout and who attended court today commented:“These charges […]