A raped prostitute, a brothel owner and a paying punter reveal harrowing stories from the sex trade
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A raped former prostitute, a fastidious brothel madam and a drunken punter have lifted the lid on the darker side of the sex trade in Manchester.
From a brothel run out of a terraced house on a backstreet to white collar customers seeking a thrill, the stories tell a tale of a world few people get to see.
While workers are said to earn as much £200 a day at a brothel, a street worker may earn as little as £30 a session working in more dangerous conditions, the Manchester Evening News reveals.
As part of a series on sex for sale in the city, the trio have spoken about life in the sex 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.
(Image: Getty)
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 Manchester Evening News reports.
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.
(Image: Getty)
“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.
“The 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.
(Image: Getty)
“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.”
“The 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?
(Image: Photolibrary RM)
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.
“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 it 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.”
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.
(Image: Photolibrary RM)
“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.