A 45-year-old woman caught acting as a sex worker without a licence said she was only cooking clients dinner at her Bendigo business.
Di Hu, a Chinese citizen who moved to Australia in 2008, was arrested in January and charged with operating an illegal brothel in Galvin Street, in Bendigo’s CBD.
She pleaded guilty to knowingly carrying on business as a sex worker without a licence but claimed she had only used the property to cook dinner for her clients and had not acted as an escort at the premises.
Detectives raided the Galvin Street address on August 7 last year and arrested another Chinese citizen, 55-year-old Hui Liu, who was working at the business as a masseuse and escort.
In a previous court appearance, Liu said she had only worked as a sex worker in Bendigo for one day and was given a $500 fine without conviction.
SURREY, B.C. - Mounties in Surrey, B.C., are looking for two suspects who sexually and physically assaulted a female sex-trade worker, putting her in hospital with serious injuries.
The assault took place early on Oct. 18, 2012, after the woman was picked up in north Surrey and then driven several kilometres away to a secluded area on Colebrook Rd.
Police describe the first suspect as a South Asian male in his mid-20s, who is six-foot-one and between 190 and 210 pounds with a lean build.
The second suspect, also a South Asian male in his mid-20s, is about five-foot-10 and between 200 and 230 pounds.
Police say they have secured what is believed to be DNA from the suspects.
Sex workers in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside will soon be getting special wallet-sized cards educating about their rights with police, thanks to two advocacy groups -- Pivot Legal Society and Sex Workers United Against Violence (SWUAV).
The two groups' previous collaborations include winning a high-profile Supreme Court of Canada case which saw the country's prostitution laws declared unconstitutional, as well as convincing Vancouver police to overhaul their own enforcement of those laws.
"They should be protecting the women a lot better than what they do," said DJ Joe, a sex worker with SWUAV, and board member of the city's Sister Watch. "When you call in and tell them you need help, it takes them two or three hours to even get there. They need to respond a lot quicker."
"A few times times, I've phoned in and it took them two to three hours to respond, which is too late to help these women. It's hard to be a part of this community -- to try to protect this community, and protect the girls -- it's a lot of work, in my experience."
For Pivot, the cards are a pocket-sized next step to spread the word about the Vancouver Police Department (VPD)'s newly declared Sex Work Enforcement Guidelines. The new approach mandates that police prioritize sex workers' safety – rather than punishing them for breaking prostitution laws. Similarly, where nuisance complaints are filed against a sex worker, police are ordered to seek alternative approaches to enforcement.
Nikki will this year celebrate — quite literally, since she loves her job — her 17th year as a sex worker (it's a term she and all the women in this story prefer, since "prostitute" has negative connotations).
Nikki is out and proud about her profession. Her whole family knows what she does. She's been taking money for sex since she was 23 years old. She's now 42 and she has no plans to retire any time soon.
"I used to own a hairdressing salon," Nikki says. "I wasn't making much money. I was doing tax returns to make extra. Then I got engaged and I was going to get married, but the guy I was engaged to had never had sex before. I was worried he might stray after we got married, so I sent him to see a local sex worker."
It worked out pretty well. One might say it worked out far too well because, the next thing Nikki knew, her fiancé was dating that sex worker on the side. Nikki marched down to the brothel and demanded to see the manager.
"She was as outraged as I was," Nikki says. "It's absolutely unprofessional! But anyway, we got talking and I really liked this woman — she was strong and confident, independent and really good fun."
Mzuzu Police Station Spokesperson Sergeant Maurice Chapola confirmed the death of Bertha Mwamulika Banda of Kankhomba village, Traditional Authority Kanyenda in Nkhotakota District.
In October 2012, Police in Mzuzu also found the dead body of another 22 year old Commercial Sex Worker at Thandeka Rest House at the same Old Town.
Police then arrested 40 year old Staff Sergeant at Moyale Barracks Symon Msowoya on allegations that he strangled the sex worker. Msowoya is currently on bail pending trial but is back to work.
According to Chapola, the woman complained of body pains in the early hours of 1st February 2013 but her friends later saw her at the pub’s counter taking beer in the company of a man believed to be her boy friend.
“It is alleged that…later she disappeared with the man… to Room number one where she was found lying dead the next morning. The identity of the man who was last seen with her is yet to be established,”Chapola said.