Prostitution

Soliciting for kicks

lain Scarlet

"Make picking-up legal? I'll bet it was a lawyer who suggested it."

I had to admit it was — and a High Court judge at that. The girl at my side, known professionally as Jay, grinned hugely. "Oh well then," she murmured, "nobody: will take any notice then. Nobody except other lawyer.. that is."

She took a decidedly unladylike swig of neat coke, lit another cigarette, then cast a predatory eye round the dimly-lit bar. Satisfied that there were no punters in the immediate offing she appeared to relax.

"Lots of people regard lawyers and tarts with just about equal doses of suspicion," she said. "And come to think of it, we don't make strange bedfellows — not all that strange, anyway.

"I mean, clients only come to either of us when they have to. And they'd rather not have to for a start. Second, and this applies especially in our early days of practice, we both rely on mystique rather than expertise. Third, we're both inclined to over-value our services; and since we can neither of us guarantee complete satisfaction, we both find it wiser to ask for the money first.

"No, I don't think anyone will take any notice of your High Court judge. At least, I certainly hope they won't."

Jay wasn't being facetious. A few days before, delivering the annual Riddell Lecture to the Institute of Legal Executives, Lord Justice James had posed the question, "Does the offence of soliciting serve any purpose today?" And since, beyond pointing out that its abolition would substantially reduce the population of Holloway prison, he hadn't offered any answer, it had seemed to me both right and proper that the question should be popped to someone who would be directly affected by such a change in the law.

For Jay solicits for a living. And very successfully, too. She spends most evenings sitting in the bar of one or another of the better West End hotels, drinking coke, looking both demure and easy-on-the-eye, and attracting offers which occasionally break the three-figure barrier.

"I make enough," she admits, "to bathe in cows' milk." But her life isn't all milk and skittles. In her formative, streetwalking days she was harassed by both police and ponces.

"But now I'm working the hotels I've got to cope with barmen who want a cut and house-dicks who want me out. A girl simply can't win — they've got you over a barrel."

But wouldn't that be a good reason for changing the law — for abolishing the offence of soliciting?

"Good heavens, no. It being illegal is all part of the 'game.' The only reason a lawyer would want to change the rules is that he knows they're more or less unworkable.

"Look, let's put it like this. When I come into this bar of an evening I know I've got to tread carefully. Probably the head-barman will see me and toss up in his mind whether or not to let me stay. The answer can depend on the state of his liver, or when I last tipped him a few quid, or whether any of the managers happens to be about.

But supposing he doesn't kick me out, I've stilt got to play it discreet. That means I've got to sit down somewhere and make myself reasonably unnoticeable — unnoticeable to him, that is.

"But at the same time I've got to be noticed by any guy who's on the prowl away from home and looking for a bit of the other. That's where the challenge comes in. That's what makes it fun. But you can't even make yourself obvious to him. For a start he might not be what you think he is. And even if he is all right, a little keeping him in doubt won't do him any harm: most men like to be teased just a little — it makes them feel they're Making a conquest.

"And that's where it being against the law comes in. When you do finally start talking to him he feels a bit like a fellow conspirator. And the excitement of the chase makes him much less price conscious.

"Mind you, I feel exactly the same. I'm not selling myself — Just allowing myself to be bought! And the fact that I'm doing it illegally — well, that makes me feel like a one-girl black market." But quite apart from any personal axes Jay may have to grind, she has plenty of other reasons for wanting the legal status quo to be preserved.

"When I first went on the streets I did it out of desperation. I was out of work and broke and I couldn't have cared less what happened to me. And my third night out I got a caution from the cops. That made me think. In other circumstances I think it might have been just the warning I needed to stop me going on. But of course I did go on. An awful lot of girls wouldn't have, though — and I know lots who did get out because of that warning. They suddenly realised just what they were doing, what they were heading for.

"Because it's illegal and the cops were allowed to warn them — well, that acted as a sort of safety net. They were caught up before they'd hit gutter level.

"And the other thing about it is that if you do legalise soliciting there's going to be a repeat of the poncing situation after the war. There'll be men encouraging girls on to the game, just like the Messinas did. And then the next step will be organised brothels. And when you've got a brothel with a spare room in it you're going to have to go out and recruit a girl to fill it.

"If you don't believe me just you take a look at all these massage parlours that are springing up everywhere. They recruit 'straight' girls, then tell 'em how to make up their earnings with a bit of 'relief massaging.

"The next thing is that they're persuaded to do it topless for an extra quid — then go a bit further still ...

"Well, that's what'll happen if you don't keep some legal controls on whoring. Girls will be attracted on to the game and because there won't be any legal curbs, they won't even have a safety net. And it won't be them that's making the money but the guys who are running them."

Talking as she did had made Jay quite excited. Where earlier she had been murmuring, suddenly her voice was coming over loud and clear; and attracting the unwelcome attentions of a man who was so obviously a house detective that one felt sorry for him. "Keep it down, lass," he cautioned her and suddenly she relaxed.

"That's one who won't throw me out," she said quietly. "He knows that I'm on the game for good and that I wish I wasn't. He also knows I've helped kids get out before they've got • too in volved. I like him. He may be an ex-cop but he can think for him self and he knows what makes people tick. That's more than most lawyers do. More than most tarts do, for that matter ..."

Which, presumably, is why nobody takes much notice of either.

lain Scarlet is the author of The Professionals: Prostitutes and their Clients (Sidgwick and Jackson)