Brothel’s cover blown after 999 call when client fell down dead
A BROTHEL run from a Dorset village was uncovered by police after a client collapsed, forcing a woman who helped run the premises to ring 999.
Christy Norman, 70, rang for an ambulance after finding the male customer on the floor. She did CPR on the unnamed man before paramedics took over, but he could not be saved.
Several escort girls and a manager fled the terrace house in Charminster, near Bournemouth, Dorset, before police arrived, a court heard. Officers found underwear, sex toys and a harness bolted to a bedroom ceiling.
Norman claimed she was merely the cleaner but later said her role was to sort any problems the escorts had with customers. Police later established she was more involved with the operation of the brothel, called Bunnie’s Ranch, after they discovered she had kept records of what the girls offered, the dates they saw clients, how much they earned and the nationality of the customers, Poole magistrates were told.
Norman, from Poole, denied a charge of assisting in the management of a brothel but was found guilty following a trial.
Lee Turner, prosecuting, said: “She (Norman) had indepth knowledge of how the brothel worked. She kept a chit of what girl does what.”
Norman told the court she got the job as a cleaner in October 2015 and that the male visitor who collapsed and died “came in when the business wasn’t open”.
She said: “I asked him to go away until the manager came and went back to the kitchen. Then I heard a thump, ran in and he was there flat out.
“I was the cleaner standing there trying to save a man’s life and I was left there because the manageress had run away.”
She was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £400 costs.
Stephen Nicholls, the district judge, said: “There is clear evidence of her being involved in helping to assist and manage the establishment.”