Former worker tells of horrors

WHEN a man tried to strangle her to satisfy a fetish, ‘Rebecca’ did nothing to stop him.

Feeling she was in a lifeand-death situation, the young woman kept quiet and hoped the moment would pass. “I just sort of submitted,” said the former sex worker, whose real name is withheld for her safety. “I’ve heard worse.”

Rebecca entered sex work prompted by a personal crisis and found work at a large Melbourne escort agency.

“At the beginning it was liberating because you had all these men’s attention,” she said. “But then it gets to the point where you physically wear out and your whole being becomes emotionally worn out because you are being used.”

Escorting through an agency is different to brothel work, where clients come in for sexual services. It involves “callouts” where sex workers are sent to the client’s location.

Rebecca’s pay and the clients she met were determined by the agency. She worked about four days a week servicing up to 10 men per shift.

The money, usually $200 an hour, was more than she could earn elsewhere. A driver would take her to and from jobs, but he was not there for security.

She did not make a report to police about the strangling incident because she was scared of the agency madam.

“Men predominantly just abuse because there’s no parameters of safety,” Rebecca said.

Victorian brothel worker of five years ‘Emma’ has a different view. She said sex work is one of the best decisions she’s ever made.

“The friendships that I have made and the community that I have found with other sex workers has been really amazing,” Emma said.

Emma supports decriminalisation of sex work in Victoria and believes it will help the most vulnerable people in the sex worker community.