Happy ending
Madam facing jail after jury finds her guilty of running brothel with a string of prostitutes posing as massage therapists
A MADAM with a stable of prostitutes was last night facing jail after being convicted of running a brothel from a seafront flat.
Chin Chih Chang, 53, operated the sex-for-sale business in Kirkcaldy under the guise of a massage service.
She admitted seven or eight Chinese women worked from the flat over a year but claimed they were masseuses she personally trained.
But men who paid for sex there gave evidence about the “extras” on offer, including full intercourse.
Chang transferred about £30,000 of illicit profits from her Scots bank account to her Taiwan homeland before being arrested in a police raid.
Her trial heard how officers burst in to find a naked man lying on top of one of the women.
Following a five-day trial, the jury took less than an hour to find Chang guilty.
She was also hit with a confiscation order under proceeds of crime laws.
The trial heard how hookers in their 20s and 30s called Chang “the boss”. They serviced clients who contacted her by phone after seeing her online Gumtree advert for “Chinese massage”.
Neighbours described seeing men “of all ages” arriving at the flat in the town’s Lord Gambier Wharf day and night.
Alasdair McIntosh, 56, told how he went for a £100 massage for his “sore back”. He claimed he was surprised to get a “Brucie bonus” when an Asian woman in a bra and knickers pleasured him.
The retired joiner said he visited the Fife flat three more times as he “enjoyed it”.
McIntosh was caught naked on top of a woman when constables Stephanie McLean and Kevin Daglish arrived on May 31 last year. The officers told how Chang shouted a warning to the bedroom.
PC McLean, 31, described seeing McIntosh on a mattress on the floor in a state of arousal.
She told the court: “He didn’t make any attempt to cover up considering we were police officers in uniform.
“He just stood looking at us, which was quite awkward to begin with. “My colleague asked him to put clothes on and he sauntered towards a chair where his clothes were folded.” PC Daglish, 28, told the court: “I observed his buttocks in the air with the female’s legs wrapped around him. “I told him, ‘get off and get up’. The female tried to cover herself up. She was wearing stockings and a small top. “Due to his nakedness, I told him to cover himself
up, but he stood there with a grin on his face as if he wasn’t bothered by the scenario. He walked with no shame. He sort of strutted.”
To laughter in the courtroom, Daglish added: “He was quite cocky.”
Andrew Wilson, 50, was fully clothed in another room. The courier – who said he’d come for a massage to treat his sciatic nerve and had no interest in sexual services – told how Chang put her arm round him and said: “Say you’re my boyfriend.”
Regular client James Saunders described how the women kept “potions, lotions and creams” and condoms.
The jobless 61-year-old said Chang brought women to his Kirkcaldy bedsit three times for “in-calls”. He paid £110 for full sex each time while Chang waited in his kitchen.
Saunders described Chang as “the madam” as “she was taking the money”.
He said the women offered to give him extra sexual services for cash once they were alone, asking him: “Don’t tell boss.”
Mum-of-one Chang left Taiwan 18 years ago for the US but married an Englishman in 2012 and has been in the UK for four years.
Chang, from Hove, Sussex, gave evidence through an interpreter, claiming she didn’t know the women were providing sex.
Some behaviour she witnessed “felt strange”, but she “only realised the whole story” after listening to other witnesses.
Chang said men visiting for a “Chinese massage” had asked for sex acts but she declined as a “professional” masseuse.
She said the women showered often but was told it was because they got “hot” at work, and she also thought it “strange” that some massages “finished early”.
Sheriff Jamie Gilchrist QC deferred sentence for reports and granted bail.
Discharging the jury, the sheriff told them: “It may be too much to say that you have enjoyed it.
“But it may have been an educational experience where you learned about a side of life you haven’t seen before.”