RUBY’S STORY: PROSTITUTION, RAPE AND DRUGS IN A WELSH CITY’S RED LIGHT DISTRICT
days are the busiest days. There can be as many as six or seven girls out at any one time, says Ruby. Some of them are as young as 16 or 17.
“It is all for drugs. When you are desperate, you will do anything.
“All of them are homeless, so how can they better themselves? They have no structure. Quite a lot of the workers stay in the flats [the crack houses].
“All they know is going to sell themselves, taking drugs, going to sleep and for it all to start again.”
But there is love in Ruby’s life. She has been in a relationship for the past seven months and, when she talks about her boyfriend, she looks so in love. However, she admits she found it hard at first because commitment scares her and she struggles to trust people.
“I thought that I hated men because of the way they have treated me over the years,” she says.
“An ex-partner used to hit me and he fractured my cheekbone and my nose. I have lost count of how many black eyes I have had.
“I don’t want to be used and I don’t want anyone to try to change me – I just want to be wanted.
“At the moment, it is the drugs that control me.”
Ruby uses many drugs. Apart from smoking heroin, crack cocaine and cannabis, she also snorts cocaine and, in the past few months, has tried other drugs such as MDMA and magic mushrooms.
She has become numb over the years, and she said there was a time in her life she couldn’t cry. These days, she takes drugs not to care about anything.