Published: 21 March, 2014
by WILLIAM McLENNAN
email: william@westendextra

SEX workers returned to their Soho flat this week after a judge overturned the police’s attempts to board it up.

The “walk-up flat” in Tisbury Court was one of around 20 that police attempted to close following a series of high-profile raids in December.

But the flat reopened for business on Friday and one 35-year-old, who has been working in Soho for more than six years, told the West End Extra: “It was a waste of time. At the end of the day I’m a working girl and I’ve done nothing wrong, but we were arrested and it’s not right. I’m happy I’m back to Tisbury Court because now I can earn money. I don’t want to go to work in the street and get killed.”

Several other flats were set to reopen this week after “closure orders” obtained by police expired and were not renewed. 

There has been confusion about the motivation for the raids and subsequent closure orders, with Soho priest Reverend Simon Buckley describing the targeting of sex workers as “a clear reversal of the rationale that we were given on the night of the operation,” adding: “There is a feeling the police are having to change their story to justify an unsuccessful operation.”

The English Collective of Prostitutes, who campaign for sex workers’ rights, said the brunt of the operation had been borne by women who had not broken any laws. 

Niki Adams of the ECP asked: “Three months later most of the flats are reopen­ing. What exactly has been achieved by these closures? Over 20 women were left without any income and have become increasingly desperate. Some women lost their housing because they couldn’t pay their rent, others ended up on the streets. Thousands of pounds were paid in legal fees to challenge the closure orders. We expect that the police will apologise, acknowledge the damage caused by their operation, and give assurances that this will never happen again.”

Sue, a 50-year-old maid who cleans the flat, greets customers and provides some security, said the operation was just a publicity stunt. Speaking from a Tisbury Court flat, she said: “They raided everywhere and sent police in to sell stuff to them undercover. And they just need figures and results to show that they were doing something. But if we’d done anything wrong, we would not be here today. The court wouldn’t have opened it.

“We went to court and it was thrown out. It was just a waste of taxpaying people’s money.”

Soho was a safe place to work and police were misguided in their belief women were being “controlled for gain” by an unknown third party, she said. “It wasn’t happening and obviously the court can see that as well and that’s why it’s been reopened again. I suppose there is some places outside of Soho, like those saunas, and maybe it’s going on there. But in these walk-up flats, the girls can walk in and out as well. They’re self-employed basically.”

In December police targeted sex shops, a mini-cab office and the “walk-up flats” in an attempt to stifle the trade in stolen goods. But shortly after the raids they went to court to seek “closure orders” against the flats, claiming the women were being controlled by an unknown ringmaster, thus breaking the Sexual Offences Act. Rather than prosecuting an individual police sought permission to shutter the flats for three months, leaving women with nowhere to work. 

Despite sex workers attending the hearings and telling a Hammersmith court that they worked of their own free will, clos­ure orders were granted. 

On Friday a judge overturned a closure order against the flat in Tisbury Court.