Scotland 2005: Prostitution

Scotland 2005: Prostitution Also see: Scotland 2005: Trafficking
JANUARY
28-Jan-05	Probe sheriff resigns	icLanarkshire	Glasgow Scottish Sheriff Hugh Neilson resigned amid reports he had been found in sauna during a raid by police investigating the trafficking of foreign women for the sex trade. Neilson formerly presided over the pilot youth court in Hamilton. Neilson will still qualify for his pension and no criminal charges were brought against him.
29-Jan-05	Sheriff found in a sauna resigns amid ongoing investigation	The Scotsman Edward Black
FEBRUARY
02-Feb-05	Vice girl who quit streets escapes jail term	The Scotsman Alan McEwen	Edinburgh Prostitute Karen Weaver given a six-month probation order. First Scottish prostitute to have Anti-social Behavior Order taken out against her.
13-Feb-05	Sex sauna sheriff in line for £122K job	Sunday Mail	Scottish Sheriff Hugh Neilson was interviewed for Presidency of Mental Health Tribunal. The job has a salary of £122,000. Neilson was found during a raid by police investigating the trafficking of foreign women for the sex trade He was in the waiting room of a Glasgow sauna, wearing only a towel. (Note: Mrs. Eileen Davie appointed president Feb 22, 2005)
16-Feb-05	City to host meeting on sex trade	Edinburgh Evening News	Announcement of "Unfair Trade: Prostitution and the Sex Industry in Scotland" to be held in Edinburgh on March 10. Organised by Edinburgh City Council and Zero Tolerance, the campaign opposing violence against women and children. Topics to be dealt with included tolerance zones, international trafficking and public policy.
26-Feb-05	Runaways 'vanish off the radar'	ic Scotland	Children's Society request national network of safe emergency accommodation for runaways
27-Feb-05	Drinking to the future	Scotsman Douglas Friedli	Scottish Executive: new licensing bill to be published March 1
MARCH
02-Mar-05	Comment regarding Expert Group Report "Being Outside: Constructing a Response to Street Prostitution"	Scottish Police Federation Douglas J Keil MBE QPM, General Secretary	Letter to Scottish Executive Report on the web at: "Being Outside" http://www.scotland.gov.uk/ Publications/2004/12/20410/ 48751
	Official red light zones slammed by health chiefs	Evening Times	Glasgow NHS Greater Glasgow critical of "inadequate" Scottish Executive report: fails vulnerable women
	MSP offers compromise in tolerance zone quest	The Scotsman	Margo McDonald reportedly ready to drop bill re: red-light tolerance zones - if Scottish Executive accepts recommended reforms to prostitution law
10-Mar-05	Task force 'ducks tolerance zones'	The Scotsman Brian Ferguson	Edinburgh City Council leaders reportedly angry that Scottish Executive’s expert group failed to come up with firm proposals re: tolerance zones
15-Mar-05	Crime capital: The Yardies	Daily Record	Edinburgh Yardies crack cocaine - increase in prostitutes due to addiction. (See: Yardies)
21-Mar-05	Why Glasgow should back zero tolerance	Evening Times	Consultation response from Chief Executive George Black blasts independent group of experts for ignoring hard facts
22-Mar-05	Sex-trade in city ‘makes £3m a year for drug dealers’	The Herald Calum Macdonald	Glasgow Report by George Black, Glasgow City Council chief executive
24-Mar-05	A vice probe? I'm the perfect man for the job	Daily Record Charlie Gall	Raymond Hutcheon, alleged "kerb-crawler" appointed to "Expert Group" to probe Scotland's vice industry (See above: Lap-dancing inquiry group named)
24-Mar-05	Membership of group to look at adult entertainment industry http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2005/03/24100257	Scottish Executive
29-Mar-05	The dangerous game	The Scotsman Louise Gray	Edinburgh Attacks on prostitutes
31-Mar-05	Vice girls fear vigilante attacks under new law	The Scotsman Brian Ferguson	Scotpep warned plans to curb problems re: prostitution could cause vigilante-style attacks on street workers. Scotpep backs plans to decriminalize prostitution
APRIL
03-Apr-05	Special Report: Crack Cocaine Crime Plague http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5009122136	Sunday Mail	Police study reveals hookers' pounds 300-a-day habit will spark huge rise in drug-related muggings and break-ins. (Article also available through Proquest database)
13-Apr-05	Vice girl tolerance zone Bill hit by third delay	The Scotsman	Scottish Parliament debate originally scheduled for April 2005 delayed until October 2005 to allow parliament's local government committee to consider Scottish Exec. response to expert group report.
25-Apr-05	Call for nurses to support legalised prostitution http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4458074	The Scotsman Lyndsay Moss	Andrea Spyropoulos will propose a motion at the Royal College of Nursing's annual congress asking nurses to consider whether they support legalising prostitution in the UK.
MAY
10-May-05	Police launch 'prostitute' murder hunt	Scotsman Jude Sheerin (PA)	Glasgow Prostitute Emma Caldwell murdered. Body found in woodland. Believed to be eighth prostitute murdered in Glasgow since 1991. Strathclyde Police News Release
10-May-05	Prostitute murder hunt launched	icScotland
11-May-05	Tragedy led to spiral of despair and death	The Scotsman Dan McDougall
11-May-05	50 calls after police plea in hunt for Emma's killer	Evening Times Deborah Anderson
12-May-05	Alley lead in Emma killing	Daily Record
12-May-05	Calls flood in about killing	The Scotsman Dan McDougall
13-May-05	Last time call girl was seen alive	The Herald Iain Wilson Damien Henderson
13-May-05	A vice little earner for sauna girls	The Scotsman Sandra Dick	Glasgow Dundas Street Sauna Description of two prostitutes working out of a sauna who went from lapdancing into full time prostitution.
14-May-05	She lived in fear for her life	Daily Record Janice Burns	Glasgow Prostitute Emma Caldwell's murder. Daily Record provided info to police regarding black-cab driver allegedly obsessed with Emma.
15-May-05	Deadly game	Sunday Herald Jean Rafferty	Glasgow Opinion and information regarding an alleged increase of police harassment of Glasgow street prostitutes. Interviews with prostitutes.
18-May-05	Police chief urges secret brothel crackdown	The Scotsman David Barrett	Gloucestershire chief constable Tim Brain urged full implementation of a national strategy to tackle covert prostitution in massage parlours and saunas. He said that society must have a less ambivalent position about the nature of the vice industry, which he said was "organised crime on a big scale with big profits." One operation uncovered a secret room in a massage parlour which housed 49 girls illegally trafficked into the UK. Assets of £5 million were uncovered and 15 arrests made.
JUNE

JULY
04-Jul-05	Prostitution tolerance zones for every local council	The Herald Lucy Adams	Proposals which follow the expert working group on prostitution earlier this year" are expected to be announced. Managed tolerance zones for every local authority in Scotland. Authorities wishing to set up a managed zone in an area where it would not cause offence could do so. Changes to legislation may be included in the Police Bill which is expected to go through parliament shortly. See: "Being Outside" http://www.scotland.gov.uk/ consultations/justice/spregp.asp
09-Jul-05	Parliament's 'second chamber' faces axe as MSPs cut off funding	Scotsman Ian Swanson	Scottish Executive withdrawing funding to Scottish Civic Forum. The Forum has spent the last six years encouraging community groups, churches, trade unions and others to have their say on key issues, including prostitution tolerance zones.
AUGUST
18-Aug-05	Many prostitutes appear to have stopped working	The Scotsman	"If ever proof was needed that the existence of a tolerance zone in Edinburgh helped encourage street prostitution, today's figures on the number of working girls still active in the city settle the argument for once and for all"
18-Aug-05	Vice girls vanishing from Edinburgh	The Scotsman Gareth Rose	Edinburgh Scotpep published figures showing that the number of prostitutes working in Edinburgh has fallen by more than two thirds since tolerance zone in Leith was removed. Scottish Executive is set to discuss whether a new tolerance zone should be set up. Further details given regarding violence toward prostitutes, etc.
SEPTEMBER
18-Sep-05	Disgraced sheriff admits paying for sauna	The Scotsman Richard Gray	Glasgow Hugh Neilson allegedly admitted paying for sex at sauna. Neilson found in waiting room of "sauna" during raid by police investigating sex trafficking. Neilson had been a permanent sheriff since 1996, earning £113,121 in Hamilton's children's court. He is now working for Glasgow legal firm Harper Macleod as a litigation consultant.
18-Sep-05	Grim tide of young sex slaves	Sunday Mail Billy Paterson	Police crackdown on sauna and brothel owners aimed at stamping out human trafficking from eastern Europe and Asia into Scotland's sex trade. Details about Sunday Mail investigations in 2004. Vice trade estimated at £11million.
24-Sep-05	Protesters vow new vigilante patrols to drive out vice girls	The Scotsman Brian Ferguson	Leith Vigilante patrols to confront vice girls. Protests considered at Parliament building, courts and outside base of prostitute support group.
28-Sep-05	Support plea for vice girls using drugs	The Scotsman	"Scottish Drugs Forum (SDF), the national drugs policy and information charity, said fewer than ten specialist services are in place throughout Scotland to deal with the specific needs of drug users involved in sex work. Of an estimated 1750 thought to be in street sex work - including 150 in Edinburgh - police believe that 95 per cent of the estimated 1400 female street sex workers are thought to have a drug problem."
OCTOBER
28-Oct-05	Fans targeted in murder appeal	Scotsman	Glasgow Football fans called on to help in hunt for the killer of a prostitute, Emma Caldwell. Images of Caldwell broadcasted on big screens at half-time during matches at Rangers and Celtic.
NOVEMBER
01-Nov-05	Kerb-crawlers targeted in blitz on prostitution	The Scotsman Alan McEwen
01-Nov-05	Focus on prostitution report	The Scotsman
02-Nov-05	New law to focus on kerb crawlers in red light crackdown	Times Online Angus Macleod
02-Nov-05	New law to focus on kerb crawlers in red light crackdown	Times Online Angus Macleod	Executive to outlaw Kerb-crawling and to put pressure on sex customers. Current law in Scotland only criminalises prostitutes. Proposals to send sex customers to 'John schools' for re-education planned.
	Finally, a vice law which fits the Bill	The Scotsman Margo MacDonald
	New law to target kerb crawlers in Scotland	24dash.com
	Police clampdown on kerb-crawlers	BBC News
	Shake-up targets prostitutes' clients	Scotsman Shan Ross
03-Nov-05	Fiscal is nicked over sex act with vice girl	Daily Record Richard Elias	Glasgow Stuart MacFarlane, a senior prosecutor arrested over alleged sex act with a prostitute after leaving a reception at police headquarters. MacFarlane is a leading procurator fiscal, with responsibility for prosecutions in large parts of Glasgow.
04-Nov-05	Praise for police action on sex trade	Evening Telegraph	Tayside Police gave the Stobswell area of Dundee extra attention after residents complained about prostitutes and kerb crawlers. The Telegraph published articles regarding the issue and the police action was successful.
04-Nov-05	It could soon be legal to sell sex on the streets	Daily Mail	Scottish Executive is drawing plans for a Sentencing Bill that would mean neither the women who sell sex nor the men who buy it will be prosecuted unless they cause a public nuisance.
06-Nov-05	Sex-trafficked victims to be offered refuge	Sunday Herald Jenifer Johnston
06-Nov-05	Lawman: My sauna sex with hookers	Sunday Mail Norman Silvester	Advocate Alan Muir, Scots lawman admitted paying for sex in a sauna. Revealed details of his sex life in "The Firm" magazine in article defending former Sheriff Hugh Neilson. Muir does not believe Neilson should have lost job after caught in Glasgow sauna (raided due to suspected sex trafficking)
20-Nov-05	Children in care falling prey to predators on city streets	Sunday Herald Liam McDougall	SPECIAL REPORT: Adults out to groom young people for sex turn to mobile phones and internet to entrap their victims
20-Nov-05	Revenue forces saunas to declare prostitutes' wages	The Scotsman Marcello Mega
29-Nov-05	MacDonald scraps prostitution bid	BBC News	Bill giving councils power to set prostitution tolerance zones withdrawn by Independent MSP Margo MacDonald. New offence, to be introduced through a new Sentencing Bill by 2007, will focus on the nuisance or harm arising from street prostitution-related activities, whether caused by seller or purchaser.
DECEMBER
11-Dec-05	Police hunting prostitute's killer seek drivers of two cars	Scotsman Nicholas Christian	Glasgow Emma Caldwell murder
28-Dec-05	Support for control of sex industry	Evening Telegraph Grant Smith	An official consultation exercise has found support for tighter control over Scotland’s adult entertainment industry. More than 80% of the responses to Scottish Executive consultation request said the adult entertainment industry should be controlled. Over 60% felt performers were left feeling degraded, lacking in self-esteem, and open to abuse and at an increased risk of rape, sexual assault and harassment. Concerns were also expressed about their health, including sexually transmitted infections, stress and alcohol or drug abuse.