Town makes top three in sex trade (From Croydon Guardian)

Town makes top three in sex trade

10:28am Thursday 26th August 2004 in News By Daniel Menhinnitt

A report into London's sex trade has claimed that Croydon has the third highest number of brothels in the capital.

Croydon was third in a league-table charting the number of brothels in each borough. Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea were the top two, according to the Poppy Project, part of London charity Eaves Housing, which published the survey last Thursday.

The report investigated the on-street sex industry, where prostitutes are approached by customers, and the off-street sex industry, where services are advertised in papers and websites and are carried out in licensed and unlicensed premises.

Croydon is also named in the report as one of 10 main areas for on-street prostitution in London, Thornton Heath and Norwood being two the researchers looked at specifically.

However, Detective Inspector Richard Powell from the Metropolitan Police's CO14 vice unit, who has lived in Croydon for 25 years, said the town did not have an on-street problem.

D Insp Powell, said: "That's something I would disagree with. Croydon does not have an on-street problem in no sense is there a red-light district there."

The study, which took six months to complete, showed that there are 38 unlicensed sites selling sex and at least one site which has been licensed by Croydon Council compared to an average of 19 for other London boroughs. The report's author, Sandra Dickson, said the explanation may be due to the number of women using the National Asylum Support Service (NASS), based in Croydon, who are preyed upon by traffickers.

However, the Home Office, which runs NASS, argued the research showed no evidence that there was a link between foreign women working in the sex trade and trafficking, despite the fact the Poppy Project works directly with women forced into sexual exploitation in the UK.

Sandra Dickson told the Guardian: "Croydon is a real growth area in terms of the sex industry."

She added that there were links between the sex industry and organised crime.

One person working in Croydon's sex industry told the Guardian: "I would say it has grown over the last year. It's quite a big area. I think that's due to people being more tolerant.

"I don't think it's at all related to trafficking. I think it's that people are more open to the services we provide. We don't have a licence. No one does unless they are offering massage."

A spokesman for Croydon Council said: "We have received copies of this report and will be meeting with the police shortly to develop a way to best address the situation."

The report is available from the Poppy Project on 020 7840 7130.