Sex workers are exploited victims
THE Scottish Government considers prostitution to be violence against women so it must question why the industry’s victims are criminalised.
The punters, the pimps, the websites and the organised crime which profit from the sex trade are largely left to exploit prostituted women with impunity.
Most women don’t go into prostitution by choice – it is a question of survival and desperation.
For the majority, it is not empowering, not just a job like any other but a dehumanising and humiliating experience which leaves them with long-term physical and emotional scars.
Many sex workers are vulnerable – either coerced or pulled into the sex trade because they are poor or addicted.
They are desperate to leave commercial sexual exploitation but are hindered by their criminal convictions for soliciting.
A civilised society should not tolerate women being traded as commodities and helping women exit prostitution is crucial.
These women can only choose another life if they are supported and given opportunities to train and find other work.
An alliance of frontline support workers and survivors of the sex trade say that it is now time to decriminalise these women and wipe soliciting from the statute books, punishing the purchasers instead.
Women can’t access alternative work and training in professions like care or nursing with these convictions on their record.
It is for the Scottish Government to make up its mind if it believes these women are victims or criminals as campaigners insist, they can’t be both.
THE heartbroken sister of a teenager raped and murdered by monster Colin Pitchfork has warned: “He will strike again.”
Pitchfork strangled Lynda Mann, 15, while his baby son slept in his car, before doing the same to schoolgirl Dawn Ashworth three years later.
Despite never showing remorse, the 61-year-old was last week freed from his life sentence by parole chiefs.
He now lives in a probation hostel at an undisclosed site.
Speaking for the first time in more than five years, Rebecca Eastwood, 40, said “no one is truly safe”.
She added: “He could be living on your street or near your school. I believe he will kill again. You can slap all the restrictions you like on him – but he’s a clever man. If he’s free there’s always a risk.
“There have been mistakes in the past. He is a monster who will never change his ways.”
Now Rebecca wants to see the parole system overhauled, branding it “too secretive”. She said: “I don’t feel the justice system has protected us.”