The girls who play a dangerous game

Paul Willis reports.

TWO years ago this month, the mutilated body of a young woman was found on lonely moorland in North Yorkshire. The body was that of Vicky Glass, a 21-year-old who worked as a prostitute and who had disappeared two months earlier.

Two years on from the discovery of her remains, Vicky's murder is still unsolved and, in the meantime, two more young women - Rachel Wilson, 19, and Donna Keogh, 17, - have disappeared from the streets of Middlesbrough. But these high-profile deaths and disappearances, which have been well-publicised in the Press, are the extreme end of a culture of violence that sees prostitutes in Middlesbrough being regularly raped, beaten and robbed, in crimes that often go unreported.

In central Middlesbrough, a short distance from the busy pubs and clubs of the town centre, Marilyn Surtees runs a Women's Drop-In Centre for the town's population of street prostitutes. She says she has noticed a dramatic increase in violence against prostitutes in recent years.

"The girls round here are robbed, beaten or raped on a very regular basis. If someone wants to rob them, they will literally strip-search them. They are easy targets if you think about it and they've almost always got money on them," she says.

According to Marilyn, many of these attacks go unreported, either because the women concerned are reluctant or afraid to involve the police, or because the violence has become so routine that the prostitutes simply regard it as an occupational hazard.

Vicky Glass was last seen in the Shipmate pub in Middlesbrough town centre on September 24, 2000. Despite one of the most extensive murder hunts ever launched by Cleveland Police, no one has been brought to justice for her murder. A renewed appeal was launched two months ago on the anniversary of her disappearance.

Detective Superintendent Brian Dunn, who is leading the investigation, made the appeal. He says that there has always been an issue of violence against prostitutes. "It has become more apparent recently because of high-profile cases," he says. "But the aspect of violence is always there or nearby."

But while 'the game' has always been a dangerous one to play, Marilyn says the risks have become far higher. "There's has been a very dramatic change in the last few years. Prostitution is unrecognisable from what it was when we started," says Marilyn, who has been running the centre for the last eight years. "Then, the vast majority of women were working as prostitutes to pay for holidays or for their kids' education. They were streetwise. They knew what they were doing and they made a choice to do it."

This style of prostitution has all but disappeared, according to Marilyn, driven off the streets by a new type of girl, younger and more desperate for money. Almost all of these young women are addicted to heroin and their desperation to feed their habit has meant they are prepared to charge less and take more risks out on the street.

Young women with £100 to £200-a-day heroin habits, who may also be funding their partner's addiction, are forced, perversely, to sell their bodies for less and less to compete for the business of a declining number of punters. Research published in a national newspaper earlier this year said the average price for full sex in the UK was £50. According to Marilyn, the girls on the streets of Middlesbrough are selling themselves for one fifth of the national average - just £10.

The increasingly desperate nature of the sex trade has made violence an ever-present threat in the lives of sex workers in the town. Wendy Shepherd runs Barnardos' SECOS project in Middlesbrough. SECOS (Sexual Exploitation of Children on the Street) has been running for five years and is primarily concerned with taking children under 18 out of prostitution. But through their outreach work, they provide help and support to all street sex workers, regardless of age.

Wendy confirms a rise in violence in the past year. "Because of the influence of drugs, the trade has become more desperate," she says. "We are hearing more reports of violence against prostitutes. And the violence is not only at the hands of kerb-crawlers. Many of these girls have very dysfunctional home lives, so it could be from men they live with who are their pimps."

A recent survey commissioned by Channel Four illustrates the frequency of violence suffered by street prostitutes in the UK. The year-long survey quizzed 100 women and found that three quarters of them had been attacked by punters in the previous 12 months - more than 40 per cent on more than three occasions. A shocking 60 per cent of the street prostitutes surveyed said they had been badly beaten or raped in the last year.

The desperation and drugs has made prostitution in Middlesbrough more visible. It has moved away from the traditional areas and into the town centre and residential areas. This has sparked outrage from local people appalled at finding used condoms and needles on their street corners or being propositioned by kerb crawlers near their homes.

As a result, Cleveland Police have mounted a high-profile campaign to deter kerb crawlers from the town. They have launched a radio campaign warning drivers of the consequences of being caught kerb crawling.

There has been a series of high-profile arrests recently, culminating a few weeks ago in the conviction of GP Patrick Holmes, 33, of Middleton St George, near Darlington, who could be made the subject of an anti-social behaviour order after he was found guilty of kerb crawling for a second time. But while the police crackdown can claim success in reducing the number of kerb crawlers, as a result of police measures the girls on the street are forced to take more risks.

In the Channel Four survey nearly 90 per cent of the girls questioned had experienced a police crackdown in their area in the previous three months. As a direct result, nearly two thirds said they were forced to work longer hours and almost a quarter said they had agreed to provide unsafe sexual services which they would normally refuse. Only two of the women surveyed said they had stopped street sex work altogether as a result of police activity.

Near to the main railway station in Middlesbrough is the St Hilda's area of town. It is commonly referred as "Over the Border" and historically it was always seen as being on the wrong side of the tracks. This is the area traditionally used by prostitutes and even today, a short walk from the station, girls in mini-skirts can be seen touting for business. But the spread into residential areas has seen the number of girls working here decline.

At the entrance to the nearby Captain Cook pub there is a missing persons poster for Rachel Wilson, one of the three girls who have disappeared in the last two years.

Inside the pub, landlady Olwyn McPhillips, says she feels sorry for the girls. "I see them out there in all weathers, the poor buggers," she says. "I think they've got guts. I know I couldn't do it."

An old regular joins in the conversation. He says that prostitution is an age-old problem and will never go away.

"That's right," Olwyn agrees, "there have always been men going with prostitutes and there always will be. So why can't we just keep the girls safe?"

* SECOS can be contacted on 01642 819743