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Police explain brothel toleration

Newport at nightThe Gwent Police policy on brothels in Newport has been in place since 2004

A senior police officer in Newport, the host city of golf’s Ryder Cup, says his force tolerates brothels as long as they follow strict criteria.

Supt Julian Knight says it is better to work closely with those in the sex industry to enable proper monitoring.

He told BBC Radio Wales’ Eye on Wales that the law on prostitution created a dilemma, but he had to be pragmatic.

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He spoke amid claims sex trafficking from abroad could rise around the Ryder Cup, which begins on Friday.

Supt Knight told the programme: “You have to be pragmatic about this.

“It is illegal.

“Society has a very Victorian moral code around this, as a result of which we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place”.

“Society has a very Victorian moral code around this, as a result of which we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place”

Supt Julian Knight Gwent Police

The law on prostution says that while it is not illegal to sell sex for financial gain, certain activities relating to it are. These include two or more people selling sex from the same premises.

However, rather than closing such premises down, Supt Knight believes it is more effective to work closely with those involved.

The Gwent Police policy in Newport, which has been in place since 2004, is to visit brothels on an ad hoc basis, and to develop relationships with the individuals involved.

“I have a list of 12 premises,” he said.

“We know not only where they are, but also the type of individuals that are there, the type of services they offer, and the gender.

“That allows us, with our partner agencies, to monitor them closely and to try to develop appropriate ways to get out of this lifestyle.”

CASE STUDY

Karen [not her real name] rents an apartment in Newport, from which she runs a business selling sex.

Five women, including herself, work from the apartment at different times of the day.

She told Eye On Wales that she has CCTV and a panic line through to the police station.

“We’ve got a good relationship with the police”, she said.

“They would rather see this happening than vulnerable girls on the street. They know we don’t do drugs and that we’re mature.

“If a man doesn’t want to use a condom I ask him to leave. If he doesn’t, I’d call the police and I believe they’d turn up”.

Premises are tolerated as long as they do not use people who are illegal or have been trafficked, under the age of 18, have no illegal drugs, and do not generate complaints of noise, nuisance or anti-social behaviour. Failure to comply will result in closure.

Supt Knight claimed the policy had played a key role in terms of gaining access to intelligence and developing an early warning system.

As a result, he claimed there was little evidence of any trafficking in Newport, and those who work in the off-street sex industry can report instances of violent punters without fear of being arrested.

Supt Knight’s comments come as Peter Clark, head of the sexual health charity the Terence Higgins Trust Cymru, criticised a Welsh Assembly Government decision to appoint an anti-human trafficking officer, as he said the money would be better spent helping existing sex workers.

The assembly government defended the decision, and said the post would uncover the true scale of trafficking.

THE LAW ON THE SALE OF SEX

Selling sex to another for financial gain is not illegal.

However, activities relating to it are illegal. They are:

• Soliciting or loitering

• Two or more people selling sex from the same premises

• Kerb crawling

• Pimping and coercion

• Trafficking

In response to the murder of four sex workers in Bradford in May, Prime Minister David Cameron called for agencies to work closely together to help people out of the industry, and to reduce their vulnerability.

Supt Knight said it was this approach fuelling his policy.

“The existence of off-street prostitution has been with us for as many years as we’ve been a port”, he said.

“It’s about working with individuals and agencies to provide the right level of support – yet trying to find that hard line between what is an illegal activity, yet an inevitability”.

Eye on Wales is on BBC Radio Wales at 1300 BST on Sunday 26 September, and will be available afterwards on iPlayer.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

’50-50′ hope for settlement deal

View of the Jewish settlement of Ariel, in the West BankThousands of new homes in the West Bank have already been planned

Diplomats are seeking a last-minute deal as a 10-month Israeli ban on settlement-building winds down, putting Middle East peace talks at risk.

In New York, Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak told the BBC he feared the freeze would not be renewed on Sunday.

Palestinians have said they could leave the recently resumed peace talks if Israel does not extend its ban.

Settlers in the West Bank are preparing to resume construction late on Sunday if no deal is reached on an extension.

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks resumed in September after a 20-month hiatus.

But no agreement has yet been reached on the key issue of Israel’s settlements – which Israel says are no bar to talks – despite intensive efforts from US negotiators.

Speaking to the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall, Mr Barak said he was heading back to Israel to try to convince members of the Israeli government of the need for a compromise, but that he was not confident of success.

However, he was more upbeat on the prospects for the peace talks, suggesting there was a 50% chance of reaching a deal with the Palestinians about the settlement moratorium.

The chances of the peace process continuing nonetheless were better than even, Mr Barak said.

In a speech on Saturday to the United Nations General Assembly, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said Israel must choose between peace and the continuation of settlements.

Palestinians were willing and ready to reach a comprehensive and just peace agreement with Israel, Mr Abbas told the assembly, declaring that their “wounded hands” carried an olive branch to the Israelis.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas

Abbas insisted Israel must stop all settlement-building

Mr Abbas said the Palestinians would make every effort to reach a peace deal with Israel within one year.

He also criticised Israel, which he said had a “mentality of expansion and domination” and continued to blockade the Gaza Strip and imprison Palestinians.

However, the BBC’s Bridget Kendall, in New York, says Mr Abbas stopped short of publicly threatening to withdraw from talks with Israel if the moratorium is not extended.

It seems likely that a frantic search for a compromise is still going on behind the scenes, she adds.

Israel’s 10-month freeze on West Bank settlement-building expires at midnight local time on Sunday (2200 GMT).

Mr Abbas didn’t sound like a leader about to walk out of major international negotiations.

But nor did he commit himself.

More likely, the frantic behind-the-scenes search for a compromise continues.

President Abbas met Hillary Clinton last night and there has been talk of another meeting today with US Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell.

Senior Israelis are apparently in New York and White House officials say President Obama is standing by in Washington.

The US president staked his diplomatic reputation on driving this peace initiative forward and he will not want it to collapse now.

So it seems likely that Washington is pulling out all the stops in an attempt to broker an 11th-hour deal.

Right-wing politicians in Israel are calling for a swift resumption of construction, and are backing settlers’ plans to resume building as soon as possible.

“The building needs to restart – there are some 2,000 (housing) units that are already approved,” Sport and Culture Minister Limor Livnat, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, told the AFP news agency.

At least one other pro-settler Likud MP, Danny Danon, plans to attend a symbolic ground-breaking ceremony at the settlement of Revava on Sunday, his office said.

“Our policy now is to resume a natural pace of building,” said Naftali Bennett, director general of the settlers’ organisation, the Yesha council.

However, any resumption of construction is likely to be small in scale, correspondents say, as most projects will require approval from Israel’s defence ministry.

On Thursday, US President Barack Obama urged Israel to extend its moratorium, saying it had “made a difference on the ground, and improved the atmosphere for talks”.

More than 430,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The international community considers the settlements illegal, although Israel disputes this.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Mexico nabs suspected drug lord

Margarito Soto Reyes (police photo)

Mexican police have arrested Margarito Soto Reyes, one of the leading members of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, the government says.

Soto Reyes, also known as “The Tiger”, was detained with eight accomplices near the western city of Guadalajara, the Ministry of Public Security said.

Soto Reyes allegedly smuggled half a tonne of drugs into the US every month.

Police believe he replaced Ignacio Coronel, a top member of the cartel killed by soldiers in July.

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Investigations by Mexican and US security forces showed that Soto Reyes had taken over control of an important trafficking route for synthetic drugs that had formerly been operated by Coronel, the ministry said in a statement.

The Sinaloa cartel is one of the most powerful and violent drug trafficking organisations in Mexico.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Sugababe on drink driving charge

Amelle BerrabahThe pop singer was arrested in north London on Thursday morning

Sugababe Amelle Berrabah has been charged with drink driving.

The 26-year-old pop singer was arrested on Thursday morning after being pulled over in her Mercedes in Camden Street, north London.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said she was due to appear at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court on 8 October charged with driving with excess alcohol.

Sugababes, which also feature singers Heidi Range and Jade Ewan, have had a string of hit singles.

They have survived several line-up changes since forming in 1998.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Dating scam

Adrian GoldbergBy Adrian Goldberg

Reflection of a military plane in sunglassesBritish women are being conned by internet fraudsters posing as soldiers

“I had lost my husband to cancer and for a year and a half I didn’t know what to do with myself.

“I’ve got to move on, I thought. So I joined an over-50’s dating site.”

Jean – not her real name – was soon contacted by a man named “Alex”, who claimed to be a soldier in the US Army. He said his wife had left him, that he was raising his teenage son alone, and that he was soon leaving for a tour of Afghanistan.

“We struck up a friendship, talking by instant message. He said he was going to come and see me. He said all the right things.”

Weeks into their blossoming friendship, Alex claimed his son had changed the PIN for his cash card and he was in financial dire straits. Jean offered to help and sent Alex some money. But it wasn’t a one-off favour.

Costly sob story

“He told me he had gone AWOL… and was in a military prison and needed money to get out”

“Jean” Victim of dating fraud

Speaking to the 5 live Investigates programme, Jean recalled how Alex’s requests for money began to snowball: “It went on and on. I kept helping him and his son with various things – domestic bills, school fees and things like that.”

“At one point, he [Alex] told me he had gone AWOL and was back in Los Angeles, in a military prison, and needed more money to get out.”

“I ended up giving him more than £100 000.”

Jean is not alone and is one of a rising number of women to fall victim to this particular form of online dating fraud, where the scammer poses as a US soldier – they often say they’re stationed at a US base in the UK, to inspire hope that a relationship is possible.

The yarn spun by “Alex” – deserted by his wife; single father – is a common one. A desperate request for money is inevitable.

The fraudsters behind the scam are often based in West Africa – Nigeria in particular – and it can prove very hard for authorities to track them down.

They will sometimes use the names of real American soldiers – including those killed in action – and steal photos from military websites or the social media profiles of real soldiers to make their own dating profiles appear legitimate.

This US soldier-in-distress online dating con has come to the attention of the United States Embassy in London.

Scam on the rise

Speaking to the BBC, Consul General Derwood Staeben said people contacting the embassy to report dating fraud was now a daily occurrence:

FlowersOnline dating scammers often send gifts to their victims to convince them they are legitimate.

“When I arrived at my post two years ago, there were two or three a week. We’ve had more than 10 in the last five days.”

“In the last 10 months, here at the embassy, we’ve logged around 450 phone calls and just shy of 2,000 emails.”

This rise has also been recognised by the National Fraud Authority – earlier this year it reported a four-fold increase in the number of people reporting online dating fraud to the Action Fraud helpline.

Rebecca – not her real name – is another victim who was sweet-talked by a fake soldier named “Charlie”. She will not reveal how much money she has lost but says she is in a lot of debt as a result of the scam.

“They take weeks – in my case, months – to build up trust, asking you about your family and life, and making you feel loved”

“Rebecca” Victim of dating fraud

She says she fears opening her mail, or answering her phone, as she doesn’t know how to repay the money she borrowed to lend to Charlie.

Like fellow victim Jean, she said the men posing as soliders really know how to exploit the emotions of the women they hope to con.

“I was recently in hospital for an operation and on my way down to the theatre, he was texting me to say he was going to pray for me and he would soon be with me to take care of me.”

“They go to great lengths to appear realistic. Sometimes you even get gifts – I was sent flowers, balloons and teddy bears, and would receive poems and emails every day.

“They take weeks – in my case, months – to build up trust, asking you about your family and life, and making you feel loved.

“Then they tell you a sob story about them being left alone with a child – they even send text messages and emails supposedly from their child.”

Elaborate plan

One of the common requests from the bogus soldiers is to ask the women they are conning to apply for leave on their behalf, so that they can come and visit them.

US Embassy in LondonThe US Embassy in London has seen a steady rise in people reporting dating fraud.

This follows an elaborate set-up, where the women are asked to complete official-looking paperwork – and send a fee, which they are told will be refunded.

This is what happened to Rebecca. She was even having daily telephone conversations with a man she believed was a US Army benefit officer, to help process Charlie’s leave application – this was in fact another scammer posing as a US Army official.

The US Embassy says that while specific procedures for requesting and granting leave differ among the branches of the US Armed Forces, the request and authorisation to take leave is between the individual service member and his immediate command – family, friends and third parties are never involved.

The skyline in Lagos, Nigeria

Alarm bells began to ring for Rebecca when she was sent what was purported to be US Army documentation to convince her that Charlie was able to repay her the money she had been lending him. It claimed he had assets worth $1.4m (£890,000).

“No soldier has that kind of money,” says Rebecca.

“That’s when I rang the US Army and they told me they hadn’t heard of him.”

Facebook campaign

While researching this story, the 5 live Investigates team spoke to dozens of women ripped off in this way. The majority are too embarrassed to share their story publicly but Rebecca and Jean were keen to speak, to try to ensure other women did not suffer the same fate.

Today Rebecca is involved in a Facebook campaign, titled ‘Stop the US Army Dating Scam’ in the hope that she can warn other women of this costly hoax. Since starting the campaign, she has been contacted by more than 240 other women who have also fallen victim to phoney soldiers through online dating sites.

Not all of them have lost cash but many have bought laptops, mobile phones and cameras, which they sent to addresses where the “soldiers” said they had friends.

LISTEN TO THE FULL REPORT

Listen to Adrian Goldberg’s full report on BBC Radio 5 live on Sunday, 26 September at 2100 BST

Listen to the 5 live investigates podcast Follow 5 live Investigates on Facebook Follow 5 live Investigates on Twitter

The US Embassy says anyone who has been a target of dating fraud should report their case to their local police force. Rebecca reported her case but was told there was no chance of her ever getting her money back.

However, in Jean’s case, police did manage to trace some of the money she sent to accounts in Nigeria and California. They recovered just over £13,000 – small consolation when the total sum she sent was close to £100,000.

A year on after being caught out, Jean is utterly distraught knowing she was conned and feels she has let her family down.

“What hurts the most is that when my husband died of cancer, he put everything in order. He had arranged for money to be invested so I could draw an income each month and I could have a decent lifestyle. And I went and wasted all the money and that broke my heart.”

“I have three teenage grandchildren. I like to help them out, give them pocket money. But of course I had to tell them about this and tell them that it meant I can’t give them anything any more.”

“I’m close to my family and I feel I let them all down.”

“My son told me: ‘How many times in life have you told us to be careful?’ And now look what you did.”

You can hear the full report on 5 live Investigates on Sunday, 26 September at 2100 BST on BBC Radio 5 live.

You can also listen again on the BBC iPlayer or by downloading the 5 live Investigates podcast.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Newspaper review

Sunday newspapers

The photograph of Ed and David Miliband hugging after Ed was declared Labour leader appears on the front pages of many of the papers.

Nevertheless, the News of the World understands David remains “psychologically broken” by the result.

It says there is a fear in the party there will be an exodus of top Blairites – including David.

The paper reports that David will be unable to face serving on a front bench led by his “kid brother”.

“Victorious Ed Miliband begs David not to quit”, is the headline on the front page of the Sunday Times.

The paper reports he is willing to give his older brother any job he wants to keep him at the “front line”.

The Sunday Mirror says Ed will have to build bridges with the brother whose lifetime ambition he “crushed” in a “titanic struggle” for the leadership.

The Observer says Ed’s “knife-edge” victory leaves his elder brother’s political dreams in tatters.

Both the People and Sunday Express understand Ed Miliband will use his speech to the Labour party conference to woo Liberal Democrat supporters and some of the MPs who are disaffected with the coalition.

The Independent on Sunday believes Ed Miliband’s success can be credited to his apparent “common touch” and the ability to “speak human”.

The Mail on Sunday reports that Ed Miliband’s supporters believe he has the “charm” and “intelligence” to take on David Cameron and Nick Clegg.

Meanwhile, iIn the Sunday Telegraph, the government is criticised by the chairman of BAA over the decision to scrap plans for a third runway at Heathrow airport.

Sir Nigel Rudd says in an interview that Heathrow has been demoted to a “second tier” world airport.

Pope Benedict’s recent visit to Britain features in the Mail on Sunday.

The paper reports that some Catholics are uneasy about claims a significant proportion of the cost had to be funded by rich business people.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

’50-50 chance of Israel settlement deal’

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, who has been leading Israel’s negotiating team, says there is a “better than even chance” of the peace process continuing despite concerns over settlements.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.