Prostitution: What's the Harm?

This programme contains some strong language and some scenes of a sexual nature

-How far did you go with the girls?

-All the way.

-All the way?

And, good? Good reviews?

You seem pretty satisfied.

Yeah, yeah. Value for money.

The sex business is booming. It's a global multibillion pound industry.

Hard to believe that this is a real place.

It's like a really horny teenage boy has dreamt it up.

And in Britain, prostitution is thriving,

with an estimated 80,000 sex workers, and growing.

These are men in your life using these things - it's massive.

It goes on everywhere.

Today, it seems many young people find nothing wrong

with the idea of buying and selling sex.

I'm on the side of women having the right to choose what they do with their bodies.

Buying girls drinks, having a one-night stand, I can't

really see the difference between that and paying for a prostitute.

And the internet is making it an easy transaction for young men.

Just got on the Internet, found this girl, it was as easy as that.

Within an hour, she was round.

Prostitution is now a service industry like any other.

It's basically having a wank,

but you're paying for it...to come out of your lap top onto your sofa.

And it can be equally satisfying for the women offering the services.

I've made about £1,250 profit. I'm very happy with that.

But are young punters aware of the risks to women?

Why have the Government seen fit to endanger women?

It is utterly ridiculous.

As I journey into the world of prostitution,

I discover what the real everyday dangers of life as a sex worker are.

-How was she killed?

-She was beaten to death.

-God.

And I bust the myths surrounding the industry.

London's Soho, the country's premier red light district.

What better place to start my journey

into the world of prostitution?

-Hi.

-Billie?

-Yeah. Nice to meet you.

I'm meeting entrepreneur and part-time comedian Chris Dangerfield.

See those two fellas talking? They're touts.

They're the nearest it comes to a pimp in the traditional understanding of what a pimp is.

Chris has made his home here, and has based an entire comedy routine

around his long-standing habit of paying for sex.

Chris is the first man to put his hand up

when it comes to using sex workers.

Who here uses prostitutes?

OK, that's good, that's good. Right. I do. I use them all the time.

Who here uses porn? Right, you lying bastards. That is bullshit!

Chris also has a history of drug addiction

and claims he has spent over £150,000 paying for sex,

and I want to know why.

So, we're kind of approaching the prostitution mecca, I guess, of London now.

Is that part of the reason that you chose to base yourself here?

I think I'd been lying if I said anything to contrary to it.

I'd just come out of a rehab centre and I needed something to fill

that void, really, and I didn't think it was going to be prostitution.

I came down here, I had a massage, I was offered extras,

the extras were fantastic, and so I had extras and extras

and extras and extras.

-Was that your first experience of prostitution?

-No.

What was your first experience?

Oh, just that kind of rites of passage sort of teenage stuff.

You come up to Soho, you have a few drinks then someone says, come on,

let's see a prostitute.

-I'm going to ask you again. Who uses pornography?

-Yeah!

Yeah! The way it went from nothing to yay, porn!

Yay.

Amazing.

What's the difference between a sexual experience with a prostitute and someone that you love or know?

It's not better or worse, it's just different, and what I do prefer is variety.

What I really like about prostitution is if you weren't here,

it could be a night like tonight, I could be walking along,

nothing much to do, and I think, I'd really like...

and within five minutes, I could be having her, and I'm only 80 quid down,

and that would usually be a night out at a club or something.

That's the thing.

If it's so easy for people to get sex for free on a night out,

why would anyone want to pay for it?

My experience of a lot of prostitution is,

it's a very wonderful, kind, giving, honest situation.

-Yeah.

-Very opposite to my experience of meeting girls in bars

and clubs, which tend to be very manipulative, a lot of lies.

I think the prostitution situation is very efficient, it's very honest.

-Convenient.

-Yeah.

I like to have sex, you like to earn money,

this can work together quite well, and it does.

Well, let me tell you something about porn.

The people, the actors and actresses in porn, they're prostitutes,

they're being paid to have sex, yeah?

The only difference between you lot and me, I f...ing pay for it.

Chris shows me that brothels, also known as walk ups,

are dotted around everywhere.

Models. They're not models, are they?

They're sex workers.

This one's advertising two whole floors.

More models.

It might be surprising that Chris likes to draw so much attention to it.

You know, it's like a theme park, it's like Sex World.

But he says more men than I would expect visit sex workers.

Who uses them?

Lots of people.

These are men in your life using these things.

It's massive - it goes on everywhere.

It is the only thing around here that seems to be succeeding. All the other shops are going out of business.

Chris was quite a character, wasn't he? I

feel like he gets away with saying quite a lot of stuff

that would infuriate people under normal circumstances,

but there's something very, very charming about him.

I think that when you're talking about people who use prostitutes,

Chris might be a quite extreme case,

but he seem to think that everyone's done it.

I want to find out if that's true, and if it is true, then why?

I'm starting with a trip abroad to try

and find some young British men to speak to,

where they might be more relaxed and unguided about their sex lives.

The medieval city of Prague is one of Europe's tourist hotspots.

And it's become a top destination for thousands of British stag paries each year.

I'm about to find out for myself now what it is that brings

all of these young guys to Prague.

One reason is obvious.

You can get cheap flights from Edinburgh,

the hotels and that are cheap, and the beer's cheap and the food.

But the beer's not the only thing on tap.

Strip clubs, girls and bare flesh are all in good supply.

Where better to find a stag?

Prague's tolerant attitude to prostitution gives me

a chance to find out why young men want to pay for sex.

How many out of you have slept with prostitutes since you've been here?

-Since we've been here?

-Yeah.

Out of 17, about five.

Is that what attracts you to come here, then,

-the fact that it's really easy to get girls?

-I think so.

I think that's why we came as a stag party.

And he's not alone. I then find a few other guys willing to talk.

-What are you doing here?

-We're here for a stag do, that's all I can say.

-How far did you go with the girls?

-All the way, me.

-All the way?

-All the way.

-And, good? Good reviews? You seem pretty satisfied.

Yeah, yeah. Value for money.

-Cool.

-Without a doubt.

-What brings you to Prague in particular?

-The best man picked it out.

-Right.

Why do you think he chose this place?

-Because it's full of dirty whores.

-Do you see prostitutes back in England?

-Now and again.

-Now and again?

-Not as nice as over here, though.

-Have you had any fun with them?

-No, I haven't myself because I've got a girlfriend.

-Are you going to tell your friends back home...

-No.

-No?

-What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

-Right.

What happens in a stag do stays on a stag do. That's it.

The next day,

I go to meet one of the main players in Prague's sex industry.

I've been invited today to a gentleman's nightclub called K5,

and I have seen a flyer of this place.

There were a couple dotted around the city last night,

and it does look spectacular, so I've decided on this glorious day

to take up the owner on his offer of a behind-the-scenes tour.

I want to grill him about his British clientele, if he's got any.

I think this is it.

-Hi.

-Hello.

-I'm Billie.

-Hi, Billie. Nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you.

-Thank you for having me.

-Welcome to K5. Relax.

As you know, K5 is a nightclub,

and I'm going to show you now what we have.

-Behind this door this is heaven for gentlemen here in Prague.

-OK.

-This.

-Wow.

-Yeah.

Fabio regularly gives TV crews the K5 tour.

What is nice here at K5 is this touchscreen where all the customer

can have a look at the girls

that are working tonight, so look.

Customers select the girl of their choice to spend time alone with.

Behaviour - passionate.

You can get even special...er...special fantasy girls.

-I mean, our girls can be dressed as, er...

-A ladybird.

-Yeah.

-Such attention to detail, Fabio. I'm impressed.

-Yeah.

And in the next room, another of the club's unique services

that caters for many stag parties.

As you can see,

we prepared over there one girl with food on top of her.

They can eat on the girl.

-This is Paula. Hi, Paula.

-Hi.

-She is from Brazil.

-Nice to meet you, Paula.

-Nice to meet you, too.

I'm guessing that the stags don't do hand to mouth.

It's more of a sort of face...

Yeah, yeah. They do it, they do it, yeah.

-Want to try?

-Try what?

-Instead of Paula?

-Oh! No, I'm all right, actually.

Thanks, though.

There seems no limit to what you can get up to at this club.

Please follow me.

We have here maybe three, four, five guys and five girls.

-A whole stag group, then, potentially?

-Yeah, yeah. Together.

Yeah, yeah. Look at this.

-Two or more girls waiting for the guys.

-Hello.

It almost feels like a sort of weird computer game or something

-like a really horny teenage boy has dreamt it up.

-Yeah.

You know what I mean?

I mean, we make our customer dream a little bit

and K5 can be the right place to do this.

-This is the Alaska room.

-Wow. Oh, my god!

You can try if you want.

It this like an erotic fantasy of many people, Alaska?

Yeah, it can be.

I mean, we try to create some different atmosphere,

-different rooms.

-It's amazing.

Is it shoes off or is that fine?

I'm sure you've had worse.

It's quite... Yeah.

-This would never happen in England.

-Yeah.

I didn't think it would happen anywhere, to be honest.

Maybe like Vegas, but not Czech Republic.

I can imagine British guys would be in their element here.

-Here we have as well sauna.

-Nice.

-And steam bath.

Got it all.

What's the average K5 customer like? Are they young, old?

Oh, we have basically everything.

I mean, we have customers from 18 years old to 70 years old.

Wow.

-Many Brits?

-Yeah, we have a lot of British customers.

Every week, we have something like two or three stag parties here,

and especially tonight,

you should come, stag parties from Ireland, Irish guys, yeah.

I wonder what it would be like to work in a place like this.

And we have here waiting for you Lara.

I have asked Fabio to introduce me to one of the women who works here.

-I'm Billie. This room is beautiful.

-Yeah, is beautiful. Very nice room.

-I'll let you alone.

-Thank you.

-Bye.

-Bye.

Do you get lots of people from Britain coming here,

-like young British guys?

-Yeah.

What do you think of them?

-Yeah, they are funny. Drinks a lot.

-Yeah.

I think they are too much drunk and always they cannot do nothing.

Oh, so you don't even end up having to do anything

because they're too wasted?

How many guys do you maybe seen in a day? On a busy night?

It depends, but I think like four, three, four, five.

Is it difficult to enjoy it when you're having to sort of spend

time with a guy that you think is really nasty?

I cannot enjoy but must be expected to spend the time with him

and don't show to him you don't like him.

Does that ever make you want to quit and do something else,

having to be sort of intimate with people that you don't really like?

No. Because every work you'll make, you make money.

But I have a son and he get older and I don't know one day

he come here and see me.

-He is now 13.

-He doesn't know?

No.

-Where does he think you work?

-In bar with restaurant.

-But maybe it's just a job for you at the end of the day.

-Yeah.

So you're able to sort of emotionally detach yourself from it?

I finish work here and I switch off and I go home and I live my life.

Lara's work is not without its difficulties, and I think

she's brave to do what it takes to make a good living for her and her son.

I have to say, after visiting a place like K5,

it's really not difficult to understand why swarms of

young British man want to come to Prague.

It's certainly a far cry from the basement in Soho with little "models" signs.

Young men can put their inhibitions to one side paying for sex abroad,

but is it giving them a taste for it when they get back home?

Back in London, I wanted to find young people willing

to talk about paying for sex.

Kevin is a 20-year-old student.

He's meeting up with some of his friends.

Emily, Jesse and his girlfriend Maddie, after the summer holidays.

Some of my friends went to Portugal recently.

One of them paid to have sex and one of them paid to have oral sex.

The last time I paid for sex was in Amsterdam, the red light district.

I was a bit greedy, I had to pay for two of them,

-so it was like a threesome.

-Really?

-How much did you pay?

It was something like 120 euros or something.

And then I was out with my friends in an East London casino

and we walked past this sauna and it was like, by the way, that's a brothel,

and, quite horny, and you go in and they give you like a raffle ticket,

and there's all these women sitting around and you go up to the door

and you hand it to her, then you they take you in a room.

-Did the girls have a good time?

-Yeah, of course they did.

Do you genuinely think they did?

The one in East London, yeah, I think she was enjoying it more than I was.

-The one in Amsterdam, the two in Amsterdam.

-Bold statement.

Shut up, man! The one in Amsterdam, the two in Amsterdam...

It was just so fake.

-Do you regret it?

-I don't regret it, because...

-He had a great time.

It wasn't great, it's not like the best sex

I've ever had or anything, it was just standard sex.

It was one at a time, that was my only option.

The guys are comfortable with the idea of paying for sex.

-You haven't, have you?

-Me? No, mate.

-Would you?

-Yeah.

-Why haven't you already, then?

-I haven't had the chance.

I was going to go to Amsterdam with some mates.

But it's not something the girls can so easily understand.

Why do you want to pay someone for sex?

-Why not just meet someone and then...

-Why not do both?

But why would you pay when you can get it for free?

The friends might not share the same opinion on Kevin's exploits

but they all agree that sex is a big part of their lives.

Older people would frown upon it because...the way

they've been raised, in a way, because it's way more open for us.

Like, you have TV shows about people going on about sex and...

-Sex is everywhere.

-Yeah, literally. It's so promoted.

-In our generation we talk about sex openly.

-Yeah, definitely.

Like you're playing a drinking game or something,

-like "have you ever"... Every single thing is like...

-Sexual related.

Like having a threesome or taking it up the bum and shit like that.

Kevin's not sure if he'll use sex workers again.

But for two friends in Cheshire

paying for sex has become a part of their normal leisure time.

Declan is 22 and a former soldier.

His friend Adam is 23 and runs a newsagent's.

-Thanks for having me.

-Cheers. No problem.

This is a very clean house for two boys.

His ex-girlfriend used to live here.

I've come to find out what's behind their decision to pay for sex.

I met my girlfriend and two, three months later

she told me that she was an escort.

So she was sleeping with other guys while you were in a relationship?

-Yeah, and I didn't know for a few months.

-Did it bother you?

At first, yeah.

But then, er...not so much, cos she had quite a lot of money,

and I was young and it was quite a nice little touch.

What's the first experience with, er,

an escort other than your girlfriend

who you didn't know was an escort?

About six months in we'd split up.

I'm still friends with her now but it wasn't going to work.

And her friend who I'd met who also did it,

that was the first time that I paid for it.

And she don't know that, so...that will go down well.

And what about you?

Is he the one who got you on it and he recommended that you tried it?

Erm, I had a few times before.

He was the one that got me, like, into it seriously.

How regularly do you both see prostitutes?

Every three or four months.

It's not, like, an every-week thing,

it's if there's money there to do it, I think.

So you go to, like, brothels, or have escorts come to your house?

Erm, I've done both. Erm...

I'd rather them do out calls and come to me,

because you just feel a bit more comfortable.

-If they come to you it's like they're trusting you to be in your house.

-mm.

So you've got to trust them.

Cos if you go to these brothels anything could happen.

'Declan and Adam can make sure they get what they want...'

Question is if it's got battery.

'..by using websites that list sex workers

'and the services they provide.'

You can see how quick it is, you go female, escort,

county area - Cheshire - search. And there's one within seconds.

You can pretty much find, you know, anything that you're looking for

-and you can have a scan through and look at the pictures and...

-Mm.

Hello.

-Hello. Busy later, Adam?

-Mate.

And she could be, you know, porn-star stunning

and have a read and think, "No, thanks, I'll carry on searching."

-Cos something might put you off.

-What would put you off?

-Er...

Unprotected sex, oral without, things like that.

-Things that make you sort of think...

-No, thanks.

-Yeah.

I don't want to wake up with syphilis.

-Ah, there's a nice face pic.

-See, beautiful.

You know, you can't get women like that, can you, if...

I'm going to message her.

Out at pubs, you know, you're not going to get that, are you?

Big plump fake boobs like that, you know.

It's basically having a wank, but you're paying for it

to come out of your laptop onto your sofa, aren't you?

Do you think that it's something that, you know,

-people are becoming less ashamed of?

-Yeah.

I think porn's got a big part to play in it.

If you watch a porno, you are not going to get that down the town.

You're just not,

you're not going to get a woman that's going to do that stuff.

'The internet has brought the top shelf to life for

'Adam and Declan, bringing fantasy women into their homes.

'The sex industry has been revolutionised by going online.

'And it's the biggest factor in opening up the world of buying

'and selling sex to us all.

'Everyone knows that porn is really easy to find on the net

'and a lot of it's free, but what I've realised is that online porn

'is the gateway for many young people to find sex and sell sex.

'So if you want more than virtual sex it's just another click away.'

If you just type in, say, "escort in Leeds",

loads and loads of sites come up.

'The site Adam and Declan use is one of the most popular, AdultWork.

'It has over 20,000 members to tempt you, catering for all budgets.'

There's an ex-porn star here who's £1,000 for an overnight.

There's a girl here who offers a £30 "quickie" hand relief.

You guys have no problems, like,

picking up girls at bars or whatever, you just sometimes find

-the experience with escorts preferable to that?

-Yeah, exactly.

You know, if you want to go and sleep with a bird who looks like

she's come out of Nuts magazine,

if you're going on a night out, you've got, like,

a one in a million chance of running into someone, haven't you?

If you're paying for it she drives down to your house and there she is.

Have four nights out a month spending like 50 quid a night

or just have one night and spend 150.

Save yourself money, get yourself a girl.

'But the guys admit that sleeping with escorts

'affects their relationships.'

Has that been a problem for you in your relationships,

that you can't get the porn-star experience from all of your girls?

-Or at least not all the time?

-Yeah, it's once in a blue moon, I find.

-Erm...

-Once you're drunk!

When they do it, yeah, they're good, but then you think,

why not all the time?

I think I push my luck all the time and you feel like a right wanker afterwards.

cos you don't want your girlfriend to feel like, you know,

pressured into doing things, do you?

-Yeah.

-It puts you off. It really puts you off.

When you're with prostitutes,

they can do it there and then, they do it every night.

Then when you're with your girlfriend,

who supposedly loves you, who'd NEVER cheat on you,

and they can't do it every night, what are you...

It's like, what are you doing wrong?

I think that young people do speak openly about sex,

I speak openly about sex with my friends,

but it is surprising to see that men...

..don't feel like it's going to bruise there ego,

the fact that they're openly admitting to paying for sex.

Cos I assume that many...people would take that as meaning that

they can't get sex unless they pay for it,

but they, you know, were very black-and-white about the fact that

they can, they just prefer to.

They find it easier.

And...cheaper quite often.

I know the guys' side of the story now, but what's in it for the girls?

Well, the internet's also made it easy

and convenient for young women to offer their services.

Charlotte is a 27-year-old sex worker

who's exploiting the internet to the full.

-Thanks for having me.

-That's all right.

'I've come to meet her to find out more.'

How did you get into all of it?

Erm, I've been in the adult industry since I was 18,

I started lap dancing.

And I worked for an insurance company at the same time,

and I was getting kind of bored of it when I got to the age of 22,

and then I kind of discovered the webcamming and the fact that

I could work from home and things like that, and work when I wanted.

On a normal day I do, like, 10 till two and then I do a couple

of hours in the afternoon and then maybe at night if I'm free as well.

So long as I've got an internet connection I can work wherever.

Charlotte is one of the thousands

operating through the AdultWork website.

So, yeah, that's... I'm all logged on now.

She just waits for the men to get in touch.

Doing what I do, I need to look after myself,

so the better I look the more I'm going to make.

And lunchtime is a good time for business.

For about the price of a pint, men can log on for a sexual kick.

ELECTRONIC CHIME Ooh, that's my pinger going.

He's going to see my lunch.

Hello.

Hello there. What's your name?

I can't hear the people, but they're typing,

so every time it beeps, like, they're saying something, so I just reply.

It's Jordan. And where are you from, Jordan?

I look amazing? Ahh, thank you. Shall I show you what I've got on?

Look, I thought I'd go a bit casual today.

Just with my shorts and that.

Normally Charlotte will do a full strip for a customer

but Jordan checks out early.

You can't take things like that personally, really, not when...

And as well sometimes you've got to think, I can't see him,

so his wife might have walked in, his girlfriend might have walked in.

Not all Charlotte's customers are prepared to go face-to-face.

I always ask them if they've got a webcam.

It's a lot easier and it's a lot more fun for me

to be able to see them, because I can be dancing around,

doing whatever, and I don't know if they're enjoying it.

At least if I can see them wanking I know.

Yeah, I find it quite interesting.

I mean, I have a guy on here as well who,

like, puts golf balls up his arse and it's...

So sometimes it can be really fun to watch 'em.

Hello. How have you been? It's been a while.

We have fun on webcam. I know. Are we going to have some fun today?

I haven't seen you do anything naughty for ages.

Oh, he's gone now.

That was the guy, erm, who puts golf balls up his arse.

Yeah. It's hilarious.

The user-friendly nature of the site has made it easy for Charlotte

to take the next step.

What about the sort of leap from doing stuff on webcam

to actually escorting?

I started doing boy-girl webcam and I was working with a guy

and it wasn't really that profitable.

Now, if I'm going to sleep with other people,

I want to maximise what I'm making.

Er, the website that I webcam on you can escort through as well,

so I just sort of did a blog saying I was thinking about it,

got quite a lot of interest, and it's sort of gone from there,

and I'm really enjoying it.

TWO ELECTRONIC CHIMES

Right, the phone.

I've got an escort booking tonight actually.

It's predominantly, like, a foot fetish booking, so I'm quite

looking forward to it, it should be a...it should be good fun.

He wants me to sort of wear kind of like a secretary kind of thing,

so I've got a few bits upstairs I'm going to bring.

Charlotte has worked as an escort selling sex for a year.

I limit myself, bookings-wise, to normally three,

maybe four at a push, cos I want everyone to get 100% out of me

as well, I don't want any of the guys to sort of tell that I'm tired

or anything like that, so... I mean, I know girls who see,

like, 10 people in a day and things like that, and that's not my...

That's not, like, 10 hours, they'll be 15 minutes

and half-hour bookings, but, yeah, as much as obviously

I do this for the money, I'm not going to...burn myself out.

Have you had friends and family or, you know,

-boyfriends who have had an issue with what you do?

-Erm, not really.

I mean, my family obviously don't particularly like what I do, but...

-What do you mean? Like...

-They...

They can't understand why I can't just use my brain

and work in an office, but I've done that and I didn't like it, so...

They just don't think it's kind of...

I don't know, they don't think it's acceptable to do,

but my friends and that, they're just like, "I can't believe it,

"you don't ever work and you make all this money."

A lot of my job as well, a lot of it is Twitter.

'Charlotte uses a different name for her sex work

'and social media is a key part of her business strategy.'

This morning when I was getting ready

I just took a picture of my bum.

It means people are looking and interested,

and then everyone who's looking and interested is a potential customer,

you know, someone who might want to come and actually see me.

-How much do you earn, then?

-Erm, it depends really...

-But a good month.

In a good month, OK, well, webcamming I try and make £1,000 a week,

and then, when I escort, around sort of another two grand on top of that.

So, like, six grand, I guess.

That's a good month and that's...

You know, it can be anything from four to seven, it just depends.

-But not bad. I get by!

-Four grand a month is a lot.

So I'm sitting in, I guess, a room that lots of men have paid to see.

-Yeah.

-It's an honour!

-Yeah, that's my wallpaper, so, yeah, I'm always...

This is where I work.

So I advertise it...

'I want to know more about how Charlotte uses the website.'

This is the site that I work off of.

So it's kind of like a social networking site for sex workers.

Let me see your profile.

-All natural. I'm impressed!

-Yeah!

-I thought your boobs must be fake, because they're perky.

-No, no.

-It's a good bra!

-I was wrong.

See, I've got my profile, my free gallery.

Private gallery, people have to pay to view it.

'Charlotte also takes her business out on the road.

'She arranges hotels and apartments and men can book a time to see her.'

I have them all here, up until...

-So everyone knows where I'm going to be.

-So it's like a tour date.

Yeah, it's kind of like a tour, yeah.

So I've got all of these bookings to come. So they submit a booking...

Wait, so it's 400... Oh, right, £300 for an hour.

Erm, yeah, that's because he's having what is...

It's like called the porn star experience, just means...

It's just a little bit different.

The girlfriend experience is a lot more relaxed,

whereas that will be more sex than what I normally do, so...

yeah, it's more money.

-Have you had, like, young, hot guys come and see you?

-Not...

I've had a couple of younger guys but generally the best types

are the older guys because they're just nicer and more respectful.

Like, the younger guys will just want to treat you like you're a whore,

and I'm like...

It specifically says on my page, don't see me if you think

you're going to spend the whole hour, like, ploughing through me.

Doesn't work like that. I'm a human, I'm not a machine.

Is it something that you'd recommend to people, do you think?

It's not for everyone, cos not everyone can,

like, mentally deal with it.

You know, you do sit there and I think,

"I'm having sex with these people for money

"and people are seeing me naked for money,"

but I can deal with it. I love it. I enjoy it, so...

But I know a lot of people who've come in the industry and left

because...I don't know, they just can't deal with,

so it's only for a particular type of person.

It's really, really quite crazy

what you make in such a short amount of time.

'Charlotte's business is legitimate.

'She's got an accountant and she pays tax too.'

-People go, why do you do it? You look at that.

-Oh, my God.

-Yeah.

It was incredibly eye opening to meet Charlotte and just to hear

how much money there is to be made in this industry.

Charlotte's made 90 grand from webcamming alone

in the past two years, which just blew my mind,

and I think that that figure speaks for itself,

in that it's not hard to see why so many girls would

get into this industry, just because it can be so, so lucrative.

There's no law stopping Charlotte from earning a living

selling her body, but not all aspects of prostitution are legal.

I want to know exactly what the laws are on buying

and selling sex in Britain.

I've been looking at the law on prostitution and it's pretty complex.

It is legal to sell sex

but it's illegal to do it on the street in public.

And with brothels it's really complicated.

They're illegal. At least it's illegal to run one.

But it says here it's actually not illegal to work in one.

Is it just me that finds the law complex, contradictory

and hard to understand?

I want to know how much other people know on the laws on prostitution

and whether they think they work.

Here we are.

So this is the venue for my pub quiz today.

Come in! Enter!

I have invited a group of 20 people, including Kevin, to take part

in my quiz on the very complicated law regarding prostitution.

And it is an issue some of them are very comfortable with.

I am generally on the side of women having the right to choose what they do with their bodies.

A lot of people when they go out,

and they are drinking in the club and getting blind drunk,

buying girl drinks, having a one-night stand, not even remembering

her name, from a guy's point of view I can't really see the difference

between that and just cutting to the chase and paying for a prostitute.

But how much do they know about the law?

Welcome to our prostitution pub quiz. Can I hear the blue buzzer?

RINGING

-And red.

-KLAXON

OK. The first scenario... It is...

A guy paying a girl for sex.

Is this legal or illegal?

RINGING

Illegal.

-It is actually legal.

-Really?

-Yes.

The law does allow one person to pay another for sex.

So you are surprised by that, aren't you?

I guess obviously you can give someone money

but I think when you first think about paying for it the thing

that springs to mind is illegal.

-What now?

-My mind is broke!

Will you go out and celebrate? How many people knew the answer to that?

Honestly.

So half and half?

I didn't know.

Next up...

A prostitute and a dude in a car. One person...

RINGING

-That's illegal, That they know, that is curb crawling, curb crawling is illegal.

-Correct.

It's against the law for a man to solicit sex

and for a women to loiter in public selling sex.

-The next scenario, a sex worker is advertising her services online.

-KLAXON

-I haven't finished the question. Go on, then.

-I think it is illegal.

-It's legal!

-I think it is illegal.

-You have to decide as a group.

THEY TALK AMONGST THEMSELVES

-Wait, give me an answer.

-Illegal.

-It is legal.

-OK.

It is legal to advertise sexual services in newspapers or online.

As long as the service itself is not illegal.

For a bonus point, is there anywhere that it is illegal to advertise?

RINGING

-Go on, then.

-Telephone boxes, public places.

-Yes.

Final scenario, prostitute with a guy,

and there is another prostitute with a guy next door as well.

-Legal or illegal?

-Legal!

-It is illegal.

If there is one prostitute in the household being paid for sex that is legal

but as soon as more than one are in the same building then it is classed as a brothel, so, that is illegal.

It is illegal to run or to help run a brothel,

but as I found out earlier it is not actually illegal to work in one.

I understand why they are illegal

because they do not want it to be big business and have pimps

and madams and stuff, but I think that it is a really vulnerable

position to be in, you can be a victim of violence or rape, so,

it would be really important I think to allow people to

live in brothels, as long as it was regulated.

So that it was not exploitative, maybe.

OK, does anyone know who is at fault in that situation?

KLAXON

Yeah? Go on.

It is the bloke.

Blokes get caught going to these brothels,

they are the ones in the wrong and they will get prosecuted.

Actually, men are only committing a crime

if the women who have sex with has been forced or trafficked.

Otherwise they are off the hook.

The person at fault is the one running the brothel.

That's the end of the quiz. So, applause...

APPLAUSE

Did you enjoy it?

ALL: Yeah!

But many of the quizzers seem unhappy with the way the law works at the moment.

All of us are confused about laws,

not one person here everything correct.

I am sure the whole British public is like that,

so, I think it should be cleared up and set straight, the laws,

rather than have it contradict itself.

The law does need to be reviewed, it is a two way thing.

They are both participating in this act.

Why should the woman be victimised and be made out to be the criminal

and the man can get away with it?

If they changed the law with prostitution and give more rights to prostitutes

I think it will promote it and more women will go into prostitution.

Which I completely disagree with.

We have found reports of 93 raids on brothels by police in 2013.

I want to know more about brothels to understand why

they are illegal but it's proved impossible to get into one.

Madam Becky Adams, though, has agreed to help me out.

She ran several brothels in the Home Counties for 25 years

until she retired in 2009.

Becky is going to show me

what is really involved in running a brothel.

So we have come to an apartment I have hired on her advice.

-Here we are.

-Excellent.

-Where the magic is about to happen.

Fantastic.

-Is this all right?

-I think this is perfect, really.

Why is it good to rent an apartment like this?

A serviced apartment is a mixture between a very smart hotel

room and renting your own apartment. But it is serviced like a hotel.

It's not always a good idea to have somewhere you are renting

on a six-month lease, you can be shut down tomorrow.

At least with a serviced apartment it means we can take our bits and pieces,

we can set up for the day and then we can go and be somewhere else tomorrow.

Here we are.

Becky checks over the apartment...

It is brilliant, perfect.

..that will become my brothel.

We've got some kinky mirrors.

That's really nice, plenty of room.

It turns out the action starts in the bathroom.

So you don't have to have a smelly customer we offer them

an assisted bubble bath, and you will give him a nice wash.

Just a wash? Nothing else?

Normally what would happen is you would watch his back

-and have a game of hunt the soap.

-Right.

-You see what I mean.

And then I will come in with a tray of tea and put

the tray of tea on the loo seat, so he can have a little

drink of tea or a cold beer or something while he is lying in his bath.

We always had a tray of biscuits.

Ginger nuts or a nice bit of shortbread.

If I had known that sooner I would have gotten ginger nuts.

You can have a good brothel without a ginger nut, dear.

-We've to get some ginger nuts.

-I am learning so much.

It is all these little essentials, you see.

You thought it was all about the sex but it is all about the biscuits.

Becky then takes me through the essentials...

It's like Christmas, isn't it?

..that every self-respecting Madam needs.

You can never ever have enough troubles in a brothel.

If they do their activities on top of the bed, on top of towels.

Baby wipes are an essential part of massage parlours and working flats.

They help clean the customers when they have finished.

Obviously condoms. Always, always, always. Safe sex.

To use a condom for sex and oral sex as well.

18 won't last very long.

Next, Becky wants to show me how to get the bedroom ready for action.

So, I will just show you really quickly how to sort of fold the towels.

Does it always start with a massage or does it ever just go straight into sex?

Normally a customer would be front down,

so he will have a nice back massage and then when the customer is

ready he turns over and it can be a front massage and moving into sex.

Kind of by now you are probably half an hour into your hour's booking.

And... Although gentlemen like to think that they are paying for

and hour's booking and they will have an hour's sex,

and people have this perception that prostitution is all about sex,

I think we all know that gentlemen normally can't last that long

so out of an hour's booking probably about 30 seconds of it will be sex.

Then it is all done and finished.

By running brothels Becky was breaking the law, she was raided

and closed down by the police six times, although never prosecuted.

If you obey the unwritten rules which are no drugs,

no underage girls, no alcohol, no coercion,

and the girls are paying their sort of tax

and national insurance then the police always knew where we were,

they always kept an eye on us and as long as we weren't making, or

being a nuisance or causing trouble then the sort of left us alone.

I was always aware that we were breaking the law but to me

I didn't feel as if I was doing anything wrong. My moral sense.

I was just helping girls and helping customers stay safe

and in a controlled environment.

Set the ambiance, there, dear.

Becky believes that brothels provide the safest place for sex workers

and campaigns for them to be decriminalised.

Why do you feel that the law has ignored then the fact that lots

of girls will be putting themselves at risk if they do abide by it?

The law is ridiculous.

But sex workers do not really have a voice

and they certainly don't have a voice that anybody particularly listens to.

So...I don't know the answer to that.

Why have the government seen fit to endanger women?

It is utterly ridiculous.

I really do feel properly equipped to run a brothel now.

Considering it.

Just talking to someone who it's affected first-hand makes it

all so much more real than hearing about brothels are illegal.

And it just makes me confused about why they are,

because someone like Becky running a brothel just

seems like it would be such a safe smooth running business.

Around 10% of the sex industry is street prostitution.

It's the smallest section of the industry

but it's the one that grabs all the headlines.

Many street workers start before the age of 18.

We do regular outreach sessions, three or four nights a week.

I've come to Liverpool to spend the evening with Shelley Stupes

who works for the local NHS trust.

She regularly visits the city's 200 street sex workers.

We would go around, see the women, giving them condoms.

We operate a needle exchange and a listening ear

if there are any problems they need help with.

We might be the only person who stops and has spoken to them like a human being.

Most street workers are coping with addiction.

Out here, they're also selling sex where the risks and dangers are highest.

We have often been on outreach and come across women being attacked.

People throwing eggs and throwing stones at the women,

people attacking them when they can't follow through on the act.

140 sex workers have been murdered in Britain since 1990.

Shelley has brought me to one of the main areas

favoured by Liverpool's street workers, but it's also the site of a murder.

So this is where Anne Marie Foy was murdered in 2005.

Anne Marie was just doing her normal business and working as normal.

What happened was, the next day, one of our other clients found her

just propped up against the tree there.

Anne Marie was a 46-year-old mother and grandmother.

-How was she killed?

-She was beaten to death.

It's heartbreaking.

Yes, it is. We're talking about people here, not about headlines.

Anne Marie was a woman and she was someone we cared about,

so it's about that and everybody belonging to somebody.

It's weird to think that they're still working around here.

It must be a constant reminder of the danger there is.

Yeah and the women come here to kind of remember Anne Marie.

You'll often see them popping up and putting flowers there.

Their children come here.

Very much a reminder of all the women we've lost here in Liverpool.

-Far too many lives, far too many.

-Yeah.

The next day, I go to the Armistead Centre in Liverpool,

a place that supports street sex workers.

Shelley has arranged for me to meet a woman

who worked in street prostitution from the age of 24.

Like many street workers,

she was driven by a need for money to fund addictions.

Thanks so much for coming to talk to me.

Liz is 33 and a mum of two children.

She doesn't want to reveal her identity.

Tell me a bit about your story.

-You used to be a sex worker, right?

-Yeah.

I'm from a loving family. No problems at all.

But I had a serious drug addiction and a serious alcohol problem.

The desperation I had as soon as I opened my eyes in the morning,

to get up and get dressed and get out on the street

to earn a few bob for my alcohol and drugs.

What was your life like?

It's something quite difficult for me to get my head around,

what it's like, the act of being paid to do something like that,

or how you can deal with it?

It's just a nightmare.

At times, I would wake up crying in the middle of the night.

I'd be screaming in my sleep.

I'd wake up in cold sweats

and see the faces of these men who absolutely violated me.

The flashbacks and the mental damage I've been left with, even now,

nearly three years clean and sober is untold.

There was a lot of anger, rage, self-hatred, self-loathing.

This belief that I was worthless.

Despite her anguish with the job,

it took a series of attacks for Liz to leave the streets.

I got to a point where I had been seriously sexually assaulted

once by four punters and then I'd been seriously assaulted by another.

And left for dead.

I'd had all my teeth kicked out of my mouth and then I was held in a flat for eight hours

and repeatedly raped and beaten by another punter.

I said, do you know what I need? I need to get out.

Shelley organised for Liz to enter a rehab programme two years ago.

-Were any of the people who attacked you arrested?

-Yeah.

-They were?

Of course they were.

In one case, a fella got three years for beating me up,

and the same with the guy who kept me imprisoned.

I've had friends and family that have struggled with drug addiction

and it's always heartbreaking to see how much it can change people.

It's horrible to hear about these stories of people being beaten up

and left for dead on the street and drugs and violence.

But hearing that made me realise

that it's not this polarised world

of maybe glamour, high-class escorts and then drug addicted prostitutes on the street.

I think they both put themselves at risks in the same areas.

Given the high risk involved in prostitution,

I want to know what the police are doing to protect women.

If brothels can provide greater safety but remain illegal,

what should the police do?

I've come to Merseyside Police Headquarters to meet the senior officer

who takes a leading role on national police policy on prostitution.

I've read up a bit on the law and I found it a bit confusing.

It's not particularly hard to spot a brothel.

Are police going and raiding them or shutting them down or what is happening?

Where concerns are raised

or we believe there is organised criminality sitting behind this,

then yes, we will raid them and we will take enforcement action

but it's about prioritising our resources.

In the majority of cases, the individuals working within those brothels

are doing so of their own choice.

In many ways, they're safer perhaps than somebody working out on the street.

Would the legalisation of brothels not make a lot of girls' work safer?

It's a difficult debate and it does polarise opinions

because the community might be, quite rightly, fairly outraged

if they thought there was going to be a legalised brothel sitting on their high street.

But you do see Australia and New Zealand at the moment,

there are some regulated and licensed brothels operating

and the early signs of that are that it has reduced both dependency issues,

violent attack and they're operating in areas

that don't appear to be provoking community backlash.

Last time we saw Charlotte,

she was preparing her tour dates across the country.

Her London leg is now over.

She has been selling sex from an apartment

she has hired with a friend.

I'll just let them through the front door.

If it's my client or my friend's client,

this is my friend's bedroom, it's a smaller one,

I got the bigger one so she was in that room.

She would take them through there, we would offer them some water

and then my clients would come through to this room.

We would do the money first. Business first, pleasure second.

She's packing to leave after a lucrative three days.

I made £1750.

My outgoings were about £500 so I made about £1250 profit.

Very happy with that.

But in the process, Charlotte risks falling short of the law.

I'm working with one of my friends but that technically means

we've turned the apartment into a brothel.

This is one of the safest tours I've done because I'm with someone

and the law is telling me, no, you shouldn't be safe,

you should be working by yourself.

It doesn't even cross my mind what I'm doing is wrong.

We're not in here trashing the place, we're not taking drugs.

We're not doing anything really that illegal.

It is a real job and I make far more than loads of people.

It should be treated like a normal job and there should be things in place to make it safer,

to make it better for us to work.

Despite her concerns on the law,

Charlotte has no regrets about the life she's chosen.

The only thing I don't like is my personal life, with relationships,

but my financial stability and financial security is worth way more than being with someone.

It is one of the things you do sacrifice.

But I think I enjoy money more right now.

I've been surprised by many of the things I've learned about prostitution.

How ordinary and everyday it is among lots of young people.

Just how much money there is to be made in sex work.

And that it's s a positive choice for so many women,

rather than a desperate one.

But whether you're a high-class escort or on the street, funding an addiction,

the risks of selling sex from the obvious physical danger

to the longer term effect on emotional health are high.