A man who calls himself the “Yorkshire Ripper” is looking for young prostitutes in Britain`s first legal red light district, as Sun Online can reveal. In a post, the self-proclaimed Ripper said: “I was myself last night on a small scouting mission, for the first time in a few months due to reports of increased surveillance by the Anti-Wh Brigade.” We issue alarms, we take crime reports and we make sure that when it`s cold or hot, they have basic human needs to eat, drink and warm clothes,” she says. We help them navigate the legal system. The Holbeck red light zone in the city of Leeds, the first in the country for the legalisation of sex trafficking, has been closed after the failure of the experiment angered residents and activists across the country. Neighbors denounced public sex in broad daylight, harassment of teenage girls, and a damning list of quality-of-life crises that “scared” the area. Prostitution is not illegal in the UK, but related activities such as advertising in a public place, pimping and curb crawling are illegal. By suspending these laws and creating a fully decriminalised market for prostitution, this radical approach – known as the `managed zone` – has turned a mundane square kilometre of industrial and bush buildings into an ideological battleground, revealing bitter divisions over the response to prostitution in Britain. But at night, this industrial area becomes something completely different. It is turning into Britain`s first designated red light zone, where street prostitution operates openly between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m., with neither women nor sex buyers being prosecuted. “I don`t think it [the Red Light District] protected women and girls,” Mayor Tracy Brabin told council. The shady “Dread Light” neighborhood of the UK is gone. Britain`s first legal red light district is to be abolished after years of complaints about rising anti-social behaviour – including schoolchildren offered for sex.

Proponents said the program, first established in 2014, has helped improve the safety of often vulnerable workers while facilitating access to assistance. Another resident, Pauline Lawn, said she looked out her bedroom window to find a man and a woman having sex in broad daylight. The pandemic effectively ended Holbeck`s red light zone last year. But its closure became official in June following an announcement by Leeds City Council. The displacement of sex workers is not new – in fact, they are often among the first victims of “regeneration efforts”. Victoria Holt, a sex worker and member of sex worker advocacy group SWARM, links the closure of the managed area to violent raids on Soho brothels in 2016, when the area was gentrified. “The women were dragged into their underwear and photographed by the press, which had been invited [by the police] to publicize the show,” Holt said. Britain`s first legal “red light district” is to be abandoned by the city of Leeds.

“There`s a lot of evidence — I`ve seen it myself — that a hands-off approach and effective law enforcement elimination increases the flow of human trafficking,” he says. “If demand is not challenged, sexual exploitation will continue and increase.” Julie Busuttil, 63, lives in Holbeck with her husband Charles, 74, and says she`s tired of having a red light district on her doorstep. Moreover, even legal sexual workplaces are decimated by gentrification. Hackney, a traditionally working-class multicultural community, was home to a number of strip clubs. However, increasing gentrification in the region led the council to adopt a “zero policy,” which meant it would no longer issue licenses for strip clubs. This, coupled with campaigns by groups like Object claiming that sex work is “objectifying,” has led to the erasure of strip clubs from the landscape. On a street outside the area, a lone man sits in his car with hazard lights on. I asked him if he wanted to talk to me about coming to the area to pay for sex. I declared that I was a journalist, and he agreed to speak.

Student Jessica Walton is one of many young women who have had terrible experiences since the start of the red zone. During a visit to the Red Light District last week, Sun Online noted that despite the strict coronavirus lockdown, the “Managed Approach” zone was still frequented by a number of prostitutes, pimps and drug dealers.