As part of our series on sex for sale in Manchester we have
spoken to some of those who are involved in this dark trade.
The brothel owner
As the manager of a Manchester massage parlour, Debbie runs a
tight ship insisting on cleanliness and professionalism.
The immaculately clean ‘therapy centre’ is run from an
innocuous-looking terraced house off a main road. Bottles of hand
sanitiser and Glade plug-ins are scattered throughout the rooms,
which are equipped with sturdy sleigh beds and decorated with
framed art and flowers.
Women rent rooms, pay their own tax and insurance and charge a
set amount for 15 minute, 30 minute or hour long sessions.
Clients are mainly white collar workers. Some are lonely. The
oldest is aged in his nineties.
Trained masseur and mum Debbie, now aged in her fifties, works
with a variety of women including ‘mature’ ladies.
The industry, she says, has changed dramatically since she first
started work back in the nineties.
While it used to be common for men to ask for a ‘girlfriend
experience’, with kissing and cuddling, tastes and expectations
have changed.
“There are some good places, like mine. But a lot are badly
run.
“A lot of places are just one bedroom, a blacked out window and
a back door. They are dark, dingy and seedy. My place is nothing
like that.
“If a parlour is owned by a man they don’t respect the girls.
The women are expected to do anything for money and they are
treated like pieces of meat.
“In parlours owned by women – who are usually ex working girls
themselves – the girls are treated far better.
“My place is equipped with fire escapes, fire extinguishers,
security cameras and panic buttons.
“It’s important that both the clients and the women who work
there feel safe at all times.
“I only ever have two ladies working here at a time because more
than two is a brothel and I don’t break the law. I’m licensed, I
pay my taxes and I have insurance. We offer sex therapy here.
“My children all have professional jobs. They know about my
work.
“They know what I do and know it’s my choice. Because of it they
enjoyed a lifestyle other children don’t have.
“When I started I was determined to make a place that was safe,
secure and clean and as I got my money I made the place better.
“Most of our clients are older themselves and they don’t want to
see people the same age as their own children and
grandchildren.
“Mature ladies are very experienced so they can give the clients
what they want. This gives them a safe and secure environment to
work from.
“A lot of ladies come into the industry later in life. Their
children have left home and they don’t have much money.”
“There are certain things we won’t do. And we always use
condoms. But other things are being offered in other places as
standard for around £40.
“My ladies don’t have to see anyone they don’t want to.
“We have panic buttons in the rooms but we have never needed
them because the men are not drug or drink fuelled. We have a no
alcohol and no drug policy.
“I run a very clean place and I believe this should be the
standard everywhere.
“But there are a lot of places in Manchester that are drug and
alcohol fuelled and dirty where money is the priority.”
“My girls can earn as much as £200 a day.
“I have known people who are highly qualified that do it for
some extra cash. One woman was a nurse, another a dentist, another
a teacher. They could earn more doing this than she could as even a
junior doctor.
“Prostitution and brothels should be legalised to make the
industry safer. It would make sure the girls are not spreading
disease, not living in fear or being pimped out. It would ensure
their safety.
“Many people use some part of their body to make money. Artists,
writers and surgeons use their hands. Some people are beautiful and
are models. Some people are athletes and use their legs.
“All these women are doing are using another part of their body
to make money.”
The man who used a prostitute
Why would anyone pay for sex?
Dave, not his real name, visited a massage parlour with a group
of friends, all aged in their twenties, during a ‘drunken night
out’.
“I went to a massage parlour in south Manchester. It was chosen
as it was the only one I was aware of and it was relatively
local.
“It was a compulsive decision made between myself and a group of
friends after we had been on a night out.
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“When we got there we were greeted by a hostess who asked us
what it was we were interested in that night. After a brief chat we
were introduced to the women who were working that night, we were
told their names before they were then led out of the room. We were
then asked which woman we would like to be with and the cost, £50
for 30 minutes.
“There was just myself and three of my friends there during our
visit.
“The room was fairly basic, there was a bed with a shower
room.
“As far as I can recall the woman I was with was European. She
was in control the entire time but did ask what is was I wanted to
do. If she thought you were doing something she didn’t like then
she would say but she was also asking if there was anything more I
would like her to do.
“All in all I would say it was enjoyable and comfortable,
definitely not how I would have imagined it before my experience.
It wasn’t all that different from the sex I had previously or have
had since. It just seemed much more controlled.
“That was the only time I have paid for sex and it is not
something I would be interested in doing again.
“Apart from my friends who were with me that night, I only know
a handful of people who have paid for sex. It isn’t something I
would ever lie about if asked but it isn’t something I would openly
tell people.”
(Image: Wire)
The street prostitute who turned her life
around
£30 – it could buy you three cocktails in the Northern Quarter.
A new pair of trainers. A couple of new records.
It’s also the paltry amount prostitutes earn for having sex with
a stranger in Manchester’s red light district.
Working all hours, in all weathers, in some of the most
dangerous parts of the city Jodie worked as a prostitute for years
before eventually quitting to start a new life.
At her lowest point, then in her mid forties, she was raped and
turned to Manchester Action on Street Health (MASH) for help.
“I was sad really. I was withdrawing I had pneumonia and I was
taken into hospital because I had nowhere to live. Yeah, that’s how
I met MASH.
“They were there to support women like myself who was out on the
streets selling ourselves. It was somewhere like a safe haven.
“While I was on the streets in Manchester I was attacked. I was
brutally raped.
“That night I was terrified, I was crying, I blamed myself, I
thought it was my fault. I didn’t think I had any worth. They saw
something in me.
“The women who are on the streets, they are worth something. And
it matters. It matters that they get the support to turn their life
around.
“Over the years they were kind of like a friend, a huge support
that always saw something in me, which I didn’t see.
“I might have felt it at the odd flicker but they always saw it
and they never judged me, they never asked too much of me they
always asked for whatever I could give and they worked with
that.”
With the help of MASH Jodie was taken into rehab. During that
time her only visitor was one of the charity’s case workers, Louise
Sandwith.
“She was the only visitor I had. I didn’t have no visitors
within four weeks, only somebody from MASH.
“And then when I went into rehab the first person who come to
see me was Louise from MASH.
“I appreciated everything she did for me and I still do.”
Jodie no longer works in the sex trade. She is now a full-time
student and advocate for women’s support services. She also helps
MASH staff to train police officers about dealing with sex
workers.
She is a success story. But there hundreds of others like her
that need help.