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You are in: Nottingham > Places > Places features > A night in Nottingham's red-light district

Prostitute c/o PA Images

A night in Nottingham's red-light district

BBC reporter Rebecca Brice spends a night with Nottinghamshire Police, speaking to those who live and work in the red-light district.

PC Dav Singh and PC Andy Coles are part of Nottinghamshire Police's On Street Prostitution Team. They have been patrolling the area around Mapperley Park for a number of years. They say it's an emotional job.

"There is sympathy some days, frustration, anger...

"We've had a young girl who is out on her first night [tonight]. That was awful. You just feel for her. I don't want her to be here. It was frustrating. We are at midnight in the middle of the city and we've got nowhere to take her as she has nowhere to live."

'Sarah' and 'Debbie' are both Nottingham prostitutes. 'Sarah' has been working the street since she was 15. She says can make £500 on a good night. She says she doesn't do heroin, "I only smoke a bit of crack". She is seven months pregnant.

'Debbie' is one of the city's most prolific prostitutes. She been handed an ASBO so is limited to where she can work. She started working on the streets in her early 30s and says she has had worse jobs.

Nottinghamshire Police's On Street Prostitution Team monitor, follow and arrest both working girls and their clients as well as offering support services.

'Trevor' was caught by police after picking up a girl and driving her to an industrial estate. He says he knows "lots and lots of girls" but "just wanted the company". He admits he "is old enough to know better".

In 2004 three hundred girls were known to the Kerb Crawling Taskforce. Nottinghamshire Police say that figure is now down to 80.

'John', a local resident who has lived in the red-light district for 12 years, believes street prostitution, although still an issue, has definitely got better.

"I do understand that the girls themselves are at least as much victims in this trade as the residents who have to put up with it. I want to see it stopped but I wouldn't simply condemn the girls."

Police say about 95% of prostitutes in Nottingham are drug addicts. 'Simone' says that she doesn't feel safe, hates the job but can't stop because of her habit.

Kay Wainman's a member of the Jericho Road Project. It was set up by St Andrew's on Mansfield Road in 2000 after the congregation decided to start engaging with the women they were passing on the way to church.

"We [now] have a drop-in centre that is open four afternoons a week. We have outreach teams that go out two or three nights a week, taking scarves gloves and sandwiches and we also visit the women in prison."

For all the latest local news listen to Andy Whittaker, 06:00 to 09:00 on BBC Radio Nottingham (95.5 & 103.8FM, DAB and online).

last updated: 20/05/2009 at 11:03
created: 07/05/2009

You are in: Nottingham > Places > Places features > A night in Nottingham's red-light district

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