ILLEGAL SEX ‘OUT OF CONTROL’
THE illegal sex industry is booming in Geelong, putting pressure on licenced sex businesses and putting clients at risk of disease, a brothel owner warns.
Lorraine Starr owner David, who asked that his surname not be revealed, said illegal brothels posing as massage businesses and unlicensed escorts were putting the pinch on legal sex venues and putting customers at risk.
“It’s out of control, it is big,” David told the Advertiser this week. “Not just in the city, but the outer suburbs as well.”
“It ranges between six to 10 active ones, they move around and there are a couple at private residences.
“And the personal ads online, some of them are legit because they have Sex Work Act numbers, but the vast majority don’t.”
The increase in illegal sex work had placed some business pressures on legal brothels David said, with Lorraine Starr introducing a cut-price 20-minute ‘massage’ option to compete. It’s not the first time the brothel has introduced a unique offer to customers, after advertising a 20c per litre “Pump and Save” discount for fuel receipts in 2010.
There were also serious health concerns with the rise of unlicensed and unregulated brothels, he said, with clients at risk of contracting diseases through unprotected sex.
Licenced venues, which pay more than $10,000 each year for a licence, have regular unannounced checks from police and the Health Department, regular health checks for workers, and strict “no condom, no sex” rules, David said.
Police Sex Industry Coordination Unit Acting Senior Sergeant Darren Anderson said health risks, exploitation of vulnerable people and unreported physical and sexual assaults were all harms coming from illegal premises.
“The illegal sex industry as a whole has grown over recent years,” Sen-Sgt Anderson said yesterday.
“We think some of the reasons for this are that the massage industry is unregulated and the growth of the internet allows anyone who wishes to advertise sexual services to do so.
“We believe there are hundreds of illegal brothels operating across the state of Victoria.”
Sen-Sgt Anderson said the majority of illegal brothels were operating “under the guise of legitimate massage businesses”, as well as karaoke venues, nail salons, hair salons and apartments.
The latest Victorian Crime Statistics show there were 11 sexwork offences in Geelong in the past four years, compared to a single offence in the six years before that.
Lorraine Starr owner David said illegal sex workers were “basically doing their own thing” due to a lack of police resources.
While police and local licensed brothels are feeling the pinch of a booming illegal sex industry, it would appear it has also raised the concerns of local housewives.
A letter reportedly dropped in letterboxes across Geelong recently — seen by the Geelong Advertiser — has warned “housewives and girlfriends of Geelong” to be wary of their partners visiting massage businesses.
“My husband recently went to a massage parlour . . . as he wanted to get a massage. Unfortunately he ended up getting some sexual services, which is pretty bad at end of the massage,” the letter read.
“Now I am in a bad situation being pregnant, thinking about my marriage life having sleepless nights. Tomorrow your husband or boyfriend might be there in these pathetic massage parlours.”
The letter, which claims to be from a pregnant Geelong housewife in her mid-30s, urges readers to complain to police about local massage businesses providing sex services.
The letter came following a Geelong Advertiser story revealing a La Trobe Tce “Chinese Massage” business — next door to a children’s therapy clinic — had received a glowing review on private sex forum The Naked Truth.
The business owner May was unable to speak to the Advertiser, but her husband, Wayne, admitted female masseuses had been sacked at the business for providing sex services.
The Advertiser obtained a recording between a masseuse at the parlour and a customer negotiating an additional fee for “extras”.