BATTLE OF THE RED LIGHT ZONE

UK’S first managed prostitution area under threat after protests but it’s safe for us here Chloe, 14: I get old men offering me sweets for sex on my way to school

A SCHOOLGIRL who lives nears the red light zone claims she has been approached about 12 times by “old men” with one offering her sweets for sex.

Chloe Lynch, 14, said she has been pestered since she was 12 while walking to and from school in her uniform.

She said: “Once I was in a group walking back and a man offered us sweets.

“Another time an old man asked if I was working and asked me to go in his house.

“It is frightening. Before, I thought prostitute meant some sort of politician. I didn’t even know what one was. But now I know what it means. It’s scary.”

Chloe’s mum Gemma, 35, said locals fear for the safety of their children, who are exposed to sexual activity almost daily.

She told how her youngest child, nineyear-old Charis, inset below, saw a prostitute injecting a man in his genitals.

“We don’t let the kids play out now,” Gemma said. “This managed area was all right at first but now it has spread to residential streets.”

SYRINGES

Even the local primary school caretaker has been forced to clear up condoms and used syringes every morning, campaigners claim. And recently a grandmother alleged a man approached her as she pushed a pram and sickeningly asked her for an hour alone with the baby. Police said they were investigating this claim.

Local shop owner Laura Walton, 39, said “The managed area has spread – some can’t be bothered to walk down to the zone. “There’s used condoms and needles all over Holbeck now. The prostitution seems to have moved to the residential areas.

“People are seeing them having sex outside their homes, in people’s driveways, phone boxes and around St Matthew’s Church. In the summer it gets worse and we have to prepare ourselves. I had customers in one day with children and a woman lifted her skirt up at us.

“My friend’s little boy is four and he asked his mum about one woman: ‘She’s not coming back is she, that bad lady?’”

Chief Superintendent Steve Cotter said: “We encourage people to report incidents immediately. We recently increased the level of resources we have dedicated to the Managed Approach and we have had some positive feedback about policing of the area.

“We will not allow crime or antisocial behaviour to go unchallenged.”

thinks I work in a strip bar. He doesn’t agree with it. My first [punter] was really sweet and now I can earn £450 a night. I’m good at it. I’ve been out in snow shivering but I made £1,000 that night because they felt sorry for me.”Many street workers congregate on Holbeck Lane under the scrutiny of half a dozen CCTV cameras. The area is littered with pink condoms, given to the girls by a local charity.A makeshift bed – an old massage table – lies in waste ground nearby surrounded by condoms and human excrement. “They complain about the condoms but don’t provide bins,” said a 36-year-old, clutching her silver heels to give her aching feet a break. “I bring nappy sacks with me.”She said she had been a sex worker for 15 years and had entertained some 30,000 men at a rate of up to 20 a night. She said: “We need these cameras to protect us. I’ve got called a slag – I’m not a slag, I get paid for it.“I had six eggs thrown at me the other day and one hit me on the head.”She admits working the streets to feed her crack cocaine habit.A Romanian aged 23 told how she boosts her £270-a-month factory wage by coming to the zone twice a week.She has been in the UK for five years and said: “I feel safe because of the CCTV cameras and police. There are some men I’m scared of.”Another woman, who is with her, discreetly nods at a middle-aged man in a Volkswagen car who has been parked up watching the girls all night.She said: “He owns half the girls on this street. He supplies them with cocaine and they pay him. He’s got six women under his control. But not me.” SAFETY ISSUE Woman on the street in Holbeck FRIGHTENED Chloe with her mum Gemma