Parents charged for teen prostitutes

A mother and father of two children have been charged with helping underage women into sex work.

The 33-year-old man and his 23-year-old fiancee jointly face three charges laid under the Prostitution Reform Act of assisting three young people into providing commercial sexual services.

The young women named in the court documents are aged 15, 16, and 17 and were allegedly helped into the work in 2015 and 2016.

Under the Act it is illegal to pay sex workers under the age of 18, or to employ them. The charge carries a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment.

‘‘As I’m sure you can understand the privacy for our young children is paramount,’’ the Auckland man said. ‘‘The charge is unusual and very complicated.’’

Prostitutes’ Collective national coordinator Catherine Healy said police must obtain a warrant before they can check on the ages of brothel workers. ‘‘I know that these critics would like to see the police go into brothels to check that they’re all over 18 and we had that system and it failed dismally,’’ she said.

Academic and forced prostitution researcher Natalie Thorburn said there was a lack of awareness among agencies about what constituted sex trafficking or exploitation.

‘‘As a nation, we’re now a lot more comfortable with responding to family violence and to sexual violence – now we need to see that same progress with categories of crime that don’t fit neatly into those types of violence,’’ she said.

‘‘Until New Zealand acknowledges that people are being forced or coerced to provide sexual favours for other people’s profit, professionals aren’t going to be on the lookout for these types of situations.’’