Thread by @WhoresofYore

I actually sat with the CEO of @BasisSexWork whilst this journalist @charleshymas interviewed her for this article. Not only has he not mentioned Basis once, but he has deliberately excluded all the positive facts she gave him about the work they do. So I’ll help you out, Charles

https://twitter.com/lesles68/status/1021651040679194624

We’ll start here, because it’s kind of embarrassingly obvious Charles. In your article, you blame an increase of STD rates in Leeds entirely on the managed zone. The sex workers of Leeds are not responsible for this. In Leeds, people also have sex with non sex workers (weird!)

Since the managed approach has been brought in, reports of violent crime from sex workers to the police has TRIPLED. I wonder why that stat didn’t make it into your article?

In the last 14 years there have been over ten police initiatives in the city that use Nordic model & criminalise the clients - including @bindelj’s Kerb Crawling programme. And 14 sex workers have been murdered under those various schemes.

Gosh. When we spoke to you, Charles, you said the police were rightly refusing to talk to you - and now there is a ‘senior police’ officer calling it all a ‘disaster’. How odd that the West Yorkshire police broke their own policy of no comment to give you that one. 🤔

As for STDs, since the managed approach was brought in, Basis (the LEADING sex worker support group in Leeds) have been able to get five times as many condoms, STD tests, etc to vulnerable women on the streets.

This journalist sat with members of Basis, who gave up their valuable time, to give him information about their work and the managed zone - and he has left them out completely.

That’s pretty telling.

The Nordic model you mention in Ireland, Northern Ireland and France Have seen violence against sex workers increase significantly - by 77% in Ireland. I don’t know why you left this out of your article, Charles. I know we told you about it.

“It was a total amnesty on any of the scumbags buying and selling the girls”. Now Charles, you seem to be ignoring the statistics we gave you about the prosecutions brought against violent men because of the managed approach & because sex workers report directly to the police

As for your claim that migrant women are trafficked into the area, in 2016 there was a police raid with the UK border agency - NO CASES OF TRAFFICKING WERE DISCOVERED.

Before the managed approach in 2014, 73 reports of violence against sex workers were reported to @NationalUglyMug - only 46% of those were reported (anonymously) to the police. In 2015, under the managed approach, 100% of violent crime was reported to the police.

Here is a list of Nordic Model police initiatives in Leeds...
Operation Dairy 2009
Operation Champion 2008
Operation Demi John 2007
Operation Crow 2006
‘Acceptable Behaviour Contract’ scheme 2004
Operation Rampart 2004
Kerb Crawler Rehabilitation Scheme - 1998

Here is an online timeline of #sexwork regulation in Leeds. It records every police initiative, changes in law, as many incidents of violence as we could recover & all efforts to support sex workers. You can see how Nordic model initiatives have failed.

tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry…

When @BasisSexWork were approached for this article, we were told this was to be a piece on how cities around the UK regulate sex work - this was clearly a lie. This was always just a hatchet job on the Leeds managed approach.

Maureen Stepan
Caroline Creevy
Nicola Hirst
Rebecca Hall
Lynsey Bourne
Elizabeth Lydgard
Samantha Pithie
Karena Priest
Geraldine Brocklehurst
Sarah Mournian
Susan Rushworth
Shelley Armitage
Susanne Blamires

Sex workers murdered in Leeds 1995-2014 - under criminalisation

“Syphilis rates in the city have doubled since 2014, gonorrhoea has marginally increased & chlamydia among 15-24 year olds is up by 30%.”

WHAT THE HELL DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH LEEDS #SEXWORKERS? Are you suggesting the women in the managed area are responsible for teenage STDs?

In 2004, operation rampart arrested 31 people in Leeds on suspicion of sex trafficking. After a lengthy investigation & court case costing the tax payer 1.5 million pounds, it was found there was no evidence of trafficking in Leeds - the case was thrown out.

When you misrepresent the managed approach in Leeds, you do a disservice to the sex workers, the police, outreach groups & the residents who are working hard to try and find a way to keep people safe. Lives are at risk & articles like this only further stigmatise vulnerable women

The notion that the managed approach has brought sex work to Holbeck is also untrue. Police reports back in 2004 estimate 170 street sex workers working in Holbeck. In the managed zone today, there are 70. yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/holistic-…

Also - this never happened. This was not a ‘crisis meeting' - it was a regularly held strategy meeting about sex work, and not one limited to the future of the managed approach.