Event: Justice for Agnes Wanjiru demonstration, December 17
Photos / video copyright Juno Mac / SWARM
Violence
Sex workers face a lot of violence. Sex workers in London are 12 times more likely to be murdered than other women. It is much safer to work indoors with others but this is illegal.
Criminalisation increases violence. Attacks on sex workers doubled in Scotland after kerb crawling laws were introduced which criminalised clients. A 2014 survey found that where arrests of sex workers and clients were high, only 5% of sex workers who were victims of a crime reported it. This compared to 46% of victims in areas where police adopted a harm reduction approach.
Statement: Gabriela, Trans Day of Remembrance
Trans people globally live under the constant threat of violence, and for trans sex workers this is heightened by illegality & stigma. This Trans Day of Remembrance we’re sharing a short statement from a migrant trans woman in our network on how criminalisation impacts sex workers’ safety My name is Gabriela, I am a transsexual woman and […]
The National: A Killing In Tiger Bay – Daughter tells of family’s trauma
A murder carried out almost a decade before her birth, and which her family should have had no connection to, has long cast a shadow for Cassie Justice Parris. The 24-year-old only found out through anxious curiosity how her father, Tony Paris, had been dragged into what would become Britain’s longest running murder trial, unwilling to wait until she was older to be let in on what appeared to be a secret in her father’s past. “I googled […]
ITV News: Gary Allen – Murder of Rotherham sex worker was ‘avoidable tragedy’, campaign group claims
Video here: Niki Adams, English Collective of Prostitutes speaks to ITV NewsA group campaigning for the rights of sex workers has claimed the murder of a mum-of-four from Rotherham could and should have been prevented.Alena Grlakova’s body was found in a stream in the Parkgate area of the town in April 2019 – more than […]
BBC News: Gary Allen – Killer guilty of two murders 21 years apart
A man has been found guilty of murdering two women 21 years apart. Gary Allen strangled Samantha Class, 29, whose body was found by three schoolchildren on the banks of the Humber Estuary in 1997. He was tried and cleared of her murder in 2000 but the acquittal was quashed last year after he was […]
Ham & High: Police Bill -5 years for rape, 10 for damaging a slaver statue
Lisa Longstaff, Women Against Rape The strength of feeling provoked by Sarah Everard’s murder and the police response to women paying their respects remind us of the fury at the police killing of George Floyd. It has shed new light onto the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill and succeeded in delaying it. The bill would end […]
Action Alert: Please respond to survey re Violence Against Women and Girls
Dear friends & supporters, The government has reopened its Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) consultation. Please submit your views and experiences here. Deadline 26 March. In our previous Action Alert we outlined the dangers of prostitution and pornography being listed as a form of violence against women on an equal par with rape, domestic […]
Left Foot Forward: Sex workers must be allowed to report crime without fear of arrest
It’s a key part of reducing violence against women.Lauren Crosby Medlicott is a freelance journalist in South Wales who covers human rights issues.Police violence those at Sarah Everard’s vigil shocked the nation, but many women working in the sex industry won’t be surprised at all. Camilla*, a Brazilian sex worker in central London, started working in the […]
Action Alert: Please respond to the Home Office consultation on Violence Against Women and Girls
Dear friends, The Home Office is doing a consultation on Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). Thank you to everyone who responded to the survey we did with National Ugly Mugs and Umbrella Lane to gather sex workers’ experience of violence to feed into the Home Office consultation. Our survey has now closed BUT… if […]
The Guardian: UK sex workers face rising violence and hardship during pandemic
Some women have taken up sex work for the first time because of money worries, while others who had left the trade have returnedSex workers across the UK are facing increased violence and hardship as a result of lockdowns and coronavirus restrictions, charities and support organisations have warned.They say sex workers are in more dire […]