Chloe, 14: I get old men offering me sweets for sex on my way to school
Chloe with her mum Gemma A SCHOOLGIRL who lives nears the red light zone claims she has been approached about 12 times by “old men” with one offering her sweets for sex.
Chloe Lynch, 14, said she has been pestered since she was 12 while walking to and from school in her uniform.
She said: “Once I was in a group walking back and a man offered us sweets.
“Another time an old man asked if I was working and asked me to go in his house.
“It is frightening. Before, I thought prostitute meant some sort of politician. I didn’t even know what one was. But now I know what it means. It’s scary.”
Chloe’s mum Gemma, 35, said locals fear for the safety of their children, who are exposed to sexual activity almost daily.
She told how her youngest child, nineyear-old Charis, inset below, saw a prostitute injecting a man in his genitals.
“We don’t let the kids play out now,” Gemma said. “This managed area was all right at first but now it has spread to residential streets.”
SYRINGES
Even the local primary school caretaker has been forced to clear up condoms and used syringes every morning, campaigners claim. And recently a grandmother alleged a man approached her as she pushed a pram and sickeningly asked her for an hour alone with the baby. Police said they were investigating this claim.
Local shop owner Laura Walton, 39, said “The managed area has spread – some can’t be bothered to walk down to the zone. “There’s used condoms and needles all over Holbeck now. The prostitution seems to have moved to the residential areas.
“People are seeing them having sex outside their homes, in people’s driveways, phone boxes and around St Matthew’s Church. In the summer it gets worse and we have to prepare ourselves. I had customers in one day with children and a woman lifted her skirt up at us.
“My friend’s little boy is four and he asked his mum about one woman: ‘She’s not coming back is she, that bad lady?’”
Chief Superintendent Steve Cotter said: “We encourage people to report incidents immediately. We recently increased the level of resources we have dedicated to the Managed Approach and we have had some positive feedback about policing of the area.
“We will not allow crime or antisocial behaviour to go unchallenged.”