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Court orders will bar prostitutes and pimps from Brixton
Martin Bentham, Home Affairs Editor14.10.08
PIMPS and prostitutes blighting a residential area of Brixton are to be issued with court injunctions to keep them off the streets in a purge by council chiefs and police in Lambeth.
The civil court orders will also be given to kerb crawlers and drug dealers who are helping to fuel red-light trade and will bar the recipients from the area for an unlimited period.
Anyone who fails to comply with their injunction issued under local government powers will face prosecution and a potential fine or prison sentence. The council believes that the use of injunctions could prove effective in cases in which a clear nuisance is occurring, but it is difficult to obtain sufficient proof to secure a criminal conviction.
Superintendent David Musker of Lambeth Police said: "Street sex workers and the men who target such vulnerable women cause significant anti-social behaviour." Six pimps and prostitutes are already due to be issued with injunctions.
The area affected covers Josephine Avenue, Brixton Hill and other nearby streets which have suffered continuing problems with on street prostitution in recent years.
Other efforts to tackle prostitution in Lambeth are continuing. Last year police in the borough wrote to 155 kerb crawlers at their home addresses warning them they had been spotted in a red-light area.
Reader views (6)
And who forced them into taking drugs?
- Joe, london
I agree that the girls are a victim of their own drug addiction, but the community is also a victim and this needs to be recognised. I live in Josephine Avenue and the prostitutes cause real problem; residents are moving out because they are fed up finding used condoms in their front gardens, girls screaming abuse at all hours of the morning, burglaries, threatening pimps, dodgy punters, etc. etc. etc. This is killing our community and it must stop.
- T Sutton, London
I can't understand the point of this action. Women are generally forced into prostitution through things like abusive relationships and drug addiction. This will just move them on into a new area, not help them leave the profession for good.
- Emma, London
I had no idea that the Houses of Parliament were situated in Brixton!
- L.Taubler, London / UK
Appreciate the decision please provide them respectable jobs in the society,so they should contribute their share in the national revenue.
- M Amjad, London
Nice one. But why and I wonder where they will go now...
- Georgie, Islington, London
