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The vice trap: Prostitute's plea for help
Exclusive By Charles Heslett A FORMER prostitute raped at knifepoint while working in the Leeds red light area said the authorities were still failing women trapped in vice.
The 27-year-old victim told the Yorkshire Evening Post that drug treatment programmes were the only long-term way to stop prostitutes selling themselves to pay for their heroin and crack-cocaine habits.
But despite being subjected to a horrific attack by deranged punter Gary Garner while working in Water Lane, ex-junkie Claire (not her real name) said she had to put herself into detox.
Serial sex offender Garner, 41, was handed two life sentences – to run concurrently – at Leeds Crown Court last month where he pleaded guilty to rape and attempted rape.
The 41-year-old, of Upper Road, Batley Carr, subjected his victim to a catalogue of sexual indignities under a railway arch near Water Lane in June 2005, before leaving her tied up.
Following her ordeal Claire left the city to start a new life in the North of England where she is in the last stages of drug detox.
The mum-of-one said: "I suppose surviving the attack was my wake-up call. I would have carried on if I hadn't been attacked. As soon as the attack happened, I stopped selling myself.
"But although the police were great during the investigation, I had to refer myself to a drug programme - they didn't do anything at all.
"I was only on 10 of heroin a day, so it wasn't as hard to come off it as some of the girls who are also on crack.
"I'm still on a Methadone (heroin substitute] programme but I'm due to come off it in a couple of weeks."
She added: "The council, and the police, can give women a lot more help and get them into a drug programme and somewhere where they can get away from their boyfriends, who have usually got them on to the streets in the first place."
Claire is now rebuilding her life with a new partner and hopes to enrol on a college course in September.
She said: "Looking back at what I was doing, I just think it was disgusting. Now I feel so much better in myself."
Councillor Les Carter, chairman of the Safer Leeds Partnership, said the city had a far-reaching prostitution strategy.
He said: "We know around 90 per cent of women soliciting for prostitution on Leeds streets are taking Class A drugs.
"In recognition of this, over the last nine months in Leeds we have introduced a specially designed drug treatment and rehabilitation programme which can only be accessed by vulnerable women, some of whom are engaged as prostitutes.
"There are many drug treatment options available with which we can assist the women , but we need them to come forward and accept the opportunity to change their lifestyle."
charles.heslett@ypn.co.uk
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Friday 25 May 2012
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