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Scotland Overview
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- Sex industry estimated profits: £200 million annually
- Police and politicians confirm the vice industry in Scotland is "spiraling
out of control"
- Scottish Parliament has appointed an expert group to probe vice in Scotland
- First year focus: street prostitution
- Second year focus: saunas/flats
- Third year focus: male prostitution
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PROSTITUTION |
- At least 5000 prostitutes in Scotland
- Sex is sold by street prostitutes, in brothels (saunas), flats and through
internet and newspaper ads
- 97% of the prostitutes are addicted to drugs.
- Sex traffickers are targeting Scotland
- Scot PEP is an organization
working with prostitutes. It supports decriminalization.
- "Routes Out of
Prostitution" helps women who were trying to get out of the sex industry.
The organization helps women by organizing accommodation, rehab, education,
employment and counseling.
- Lothian and Borders police compiled a report on brothels
- Glasgow:
- Approx. 1400 street prostitutes
- 300 in saunas and flats.
- Has
"zero tolerance" approach to prostitution.
- Tolerance zone - Bothwell St.
set up after series of prostitute murders in 1990s
- Edinburgh:
- approx. 150 street prostitutes
- 1000 total prostitutes
- Dundee:
- approx. 70 street prostitutes
- child prostitution ring
- Aberdeen:
- over 100 prostitutes.
- Strong links to drug industry
- Internet sites, newspapers and "contact magazines" advertise hundreds more
prostitutes.
- Jim Coleman, Glasgow city council deputy leader, wants new legislation to target
men - kerb-crawlers rather than the prostitutes.
- Glasgow crackdown Feb 2004. 17 prostitutes arrested, given personal
alarms and advice on how to get out of prostitution.
- Edinburgh and Dundee "zero tolerance" crackdown on street prostitution in Oct. 2004.
- Kerb-crawling legislation considered by the Scottish Executive to
increase police power to clamp down on the men buying sex. Presently, men
can be only charged with a "sexual breach of the peace" if caught in a physical
act with a prostitute.
- Margo MacDonald is attempting to get legislation passed to allow local councils to
set up "Tolerance Zones" for prostitution.
- The Scottish Executive has a working group studying prostitution. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2003/02/3203
- Report of the working group on prostitution:
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Being Outside:
Constructing a Response to Street Prostitution
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2004/12/20410/48750(PDF)
- Consultation response form
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations/justice/spregp.asp
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TRAFFICKING |
- National Criminal Intelligence Service and Interpol say trafficking has
increased dramatically recently and that Scotland is a prime target for criminal
gangs
- Vice team, led by Graeme Pearson, chief of Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency
set up to deal with organized crime in Scotland
- Support Service for Victims of Trafficking launched March 8, 2004
- £100,000 funding for pilot program
- S2M-1015# Support Service for Victims of Trafficking (lodged on 9 March 2004) Frances Curran, Susan Deacon
- "Support Service for Victims of Trafficking ”That the Parliament utterly condemns the international organised criminal gangs involved in the trafficking of women for sexual exploitation; opposes the deception of women from poor backgrounds into believing that they are coming to the UK for legitimate work and their coercion; is extremely concerned at the increasing numbers of trafficked women held as sex slaves in flats, saunas and massage parlours in towns and cities throughout Scotland; recognises the plight of trafficking victims who are often beaten, bound, blackmailed and forced into prostitution, are given no money and have their passports taken by the traffickers; notes with concern that women fleeing from traffickers fear death threats, violence and repercussions to both themselves and their families back home; further notes that in a raid on a Glasgow sauna in 2002 nine foreign women were believed to be working as sex slaves and that another Glasgow sauna advertised on the internet that all its women were bonded; considers that the immigration system must recognise the specific experience of trafficked women, who when returned as illegal immigrants are often met at the destination airport by traffickers to return to the same miserable trafficked life, and therefore welcomes the Scottish Executive International Women's Day announcement of £100,000 to Glasgow City Council for a pilot support service for victims of trafficking that will assess the needs of trafficked women, provide support services and collate information on trafficking."
- Jim Coleman, deputy leader of Glasgow City Council, major advocate for
victims
- Glasgow City Council greatly concerned about trafficking
- Raid in August 2003 found 9 foreign women held as sex slaves in Scotland
- Sex traffickers use English language schools to help bring sex slaves to
Scotland.
- "Mystery" madam (based in London) sold HIV infected prostitutes to Richard
Howie in Dundee. She remains at large.
- Sex trader Luan Plakici jailed in 2003. Victims included women sold to
Scotland. Glasgow pimp Titi Istogu involved.
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ORGANIZED CRIME |
- Chinese Triads
- Wo Sing Wo
- Lee Koon Man aka "Tony Lee" - Aquarius brothel
- Girlfriend - Lucy Nicholson - director Aquarius brothel
- 14K Triads (Snakeheads) - stronghold in Glasgow.
- Dominic Woo
- Eastern European mobsters
- Local Scottish gangs
- Death threats made against Daily Record and Sunday Mail reporters
investigating and exposing vice industry in Scotland
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