Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
My disabled clients leave here happy... a lot of sex workers are fulfilling a real need
£130-AN-HOUR HOOKER SPEAKS OUT OVER TABOO
SOME of Marianne’s clients are young men, others are pensioners. Some are married, some single. And some are disabled. Her disabled patrons might require more specialised assistance than others, but she is more than happy to facilitate them. For Marianne is a sex worker who helps disabled people experience the intimacy they sometimes miss out on.
“Most of my disabled clients have repeat visits, so I assume they are happy,” she says. “I saw a man with a brain injury about three or four times.
“He was very happy and smiled a lot after and his carer said he looked forward to seeing me.”
This week, author Kathy Lette and former glamour model Katie Price said they have considered taking their sons to prostitutes so they can enjoy the physical contact they may not find elsewhere. Kathy’s son, Julius, 26, and Katie’s boy Harvey, 15, are both autistic. Harvey is also blind, and suffers from a number of medical conditions.
It’s taboo and a highly controversial subject, and some may argue morally wrong. But Marianne claims that for disabled people who may find it difficult to meet a partner, sex with a prostitute can bring enormous benefits.
Marianne, 39, is a former social worker whose mother suffered from multiple sclerosis. She has been a sex worker for four and a half years, and estimates about 10% of her clients have either physical or mental disabilities.
She says: “One gentleman had an acquired brain injury since he was 14. He was in his 30s and lived alone with full-time personal care. He had opened up to one of his carers about sexual urges and not being able to get them met. She very sensitively spoke to his parents with his consent and got their consent to source a woman for him.”
Marianne adds: “I don’t think he would have had the capacity to do it on his own. He was very vulnerable and wouldn’t have known how to be safe about it. I visited him in his home and his carer was downstairs while we were upstairs. I was his first sexual experience.”
She continues: “I have seen an 18-year-old client who has cerebral palsy. He contacted me himself directly and I asked him to show ID. He was living in semi-sheltered accommodation and there were staff in the building next door.”
Marianne, who lists herself on a website that helps disabled people connect with sex workers, is either contacted directly by her customers, or by a friend or carer. She says: “Another client I saw had quite severe learning disabilities and I was contacted through a charity worker. He had been exposing himself in public places and displaying unwanted sexual behaviour
“They ascertained from talking to him it was due to sexual frustration and not ever having any kind of sexual experience. He was more taken with physical contact with a woman – the cuddling, the kissing.
“He was a 58-year-old man who had never had a naked woman in his bed. Although he doesn’t have the same understanding of relationships as everyone else, he still had those physical urges and they were creating problems for him in his life.”
Marianne, who charges all her patrons £130 an hour, makes sure her disabled customers allow extra time for getting undressed and ready for the encounter.
She says: “A client with cerebral palsy makes long bookings, but he probably gets a hour or two extra because of picking him up from the station and helping him up the stairs.”
And her disabled clients’ desires, Marianne says, are just as varied as those of able-bodied people.
For some, it is purely about having physical contact with another person. One client is a 53-year-old able-bodied virgin who visits regularly just to spend time with a member of the opposite sex.
Marianne continues: “I have a regular gentleman who has multiple sclerosis.
He has had sexual experience in his life before the onset of his illness.
“He is in his mid-40s and is quite severely physically disabled. Although he is in an electric wheelchair, he can’t weight-bear at all and we have to use a hoist,” she explains.
Kathy Lette said she resorted to kerbson, crawling to find a prostitute for her son but Marianne says that is an outdated idea of how the industry works.
She says Kathy and Katie Price could
easily find what they want for their children online. “Parents don’t have to kerbcrawl any more to find escorts. With the internet, the type of women offering services has changed dramatically.”
Marianne says that she is trying to break down the stigma surrounding disability, and she wants to tackle the taboo around sex workers too.
“I consider it the last real stigma in British society,” she says.
“To the public, you are either a high- class call girl or a drug addict walking the streets, but a lot of us are middle-class women fulfilling a real need in society.”
Some may agree, though the days when using a prostitute barely causes a raised eyebrow are likely far away.
Are you disabled and do you use the services of sex workers? Or are you a sex worker who has disabled clients? If you would like to share your story, email steve.myall@mirror.co.uk.