Sex

Latest news on sex

Teenage sex attacker detained

A teenager who carried out a series of terrifying sex attacks on women in one evening was today locked up for four years.

Dubai beach sex couple's appeal

Two Britons found guilty of having sex on a Dubai beach have an appeal against their convictions adjourned.

'High-risk' sex offender hunted

A convicted sex offender in the highest category risk bracket is being hunted by police in Northern Ireland.

Paying for sex to be criminal offence

The Home Secretary has attacked the 'bizarre' practice of City firms entertaining clients in lapdancing clubs, on the eve of a government crackdown on the sex trade which is expected to criminalise most men who use prostitutes. Jacqui Smith said she expected to see some lapdancing clubs, which have mushroomed in recent years, close and fewer new ones opened under reforms triggered by concerns over a seedy culture of sexual titillation creeping across city centres. She will outline plans this week to criminalise paying for sex with a woman 'controlled for another person's gain'. The new offence will carry a hefty fine and criminal record, which could prevent those caught from getting jobs in sensitive occupations. The legislation will cover women who have pimps or drug addicts who work to pay off their dealers as well as the rarer cases of trafficked women. This is expected to include the majority of Britain's 80,000 sex workers. Ignorance of a woman's circumstances will not be a defence. Kerb crawlers will be 'named and shamed', while those who pay a prostitute knowing she has been forcibly trafficked could face rape charges. The measures are highly controversial, with critics arguing that men will seek other outlets if prostitution is driven off the streets. Smith said it was 'not mine or the government's responsibility to ensure that the demand is satisfied', adding: 'Is this something about which people have a choice with respect to their demands? Yes, they do. Basically, if it means fewer people are able to go out and pay for sex I think that would be a good thing.'The prostitution review will be published this week, followed later this month by new licensing arrangements that are expected to see lapdancing clubs, currently licensed in the same way as pubs, subjected to the same stringent regime as sex shops, allowing local residents more opportunities to object. Smith said she believed the law had been 'left behind' by the explosion in lapdancing clubs, which were seen as acceptable entertainment for a corporate night out. 'If I were a business person and I were wanting to make the best impression on clients, who presumably are female as well as male, I do think it's a bit bizarre that you would take them to a lapdancing club,' she said. The new regime would make it more difficult to open them. 'It's not a complete ban on lapdancing clubs, but it's saying you don't operate in a vacuum, you have an impact on the community around you. I would hope it would make it harder for them to open, certainly in residential areas, and I would suspect that some of them will be closed when the licences come up for renewal.'The English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP), which has vigorously opposed the clampdown, says outlawing paid-for sex between consenting adults will punish women who find this more lucrative than menial jobs. Forcing the trade underground would mean that 'the risks they are forced to take will be greater', said a spokeswoman. One anonymous lapdancer who provided a statement for the ECP said she could earn £250 in four hours of dancing. 'Nine out of 10 women turn to prostitution or lapdancing because there's not enough money to survive. Recently my mum couldn't afford a pair of school shoes for my brother and sister. When I worked a day job I couldn't help her, but now I can. 'If the government is offended by the work we do, then give us the financial means to get out.' She said that there was 'no pressure to have sex with men, only opportunities', in her job. The ECP's argument has been fuelled by the glamorisation of sex work at the hands of bloggers such as Belle de Jour, the call girl whose memoir became a bestselling book and then a TV film: she claimed to love sex and regarded working as an escort for £300 as a better option than temping. Smith said that she did not believe that was true of most sex workers. Under the new offence, men would not be able to claim in court that they had not known the prostitute had a pimp or a drug habit. 'It won't be enough to say, "I didn't know",' she said. 'What I hope people will say is, "I am not actually going to take the risk if there is any concern that this woman hasn't made a free choice." It would be quite difficult for a man paying for sex in the majority of cases not to fall under this particular offence.'She had ruled out a universal ban on paid sex because some women argued they did it out of choice 'and it's not my job to criminalise the demand for that'.Katherine Rake, director of the Fawcett Society pressure group, which has campaigned for a clampdown on lapdancing clubs, welcomed the planned curbs. 'People have suddenly woken up to the fact that our city centres have changed very dramatically and that has an impact on us all, it being part of the culture of sexualisation. It has been a silent creep, but a deadly one in terms of what it meant for social attitudes and how women feel in public spaces.'What the new powers would provide ? A new criminal offence of paying for sex with a prostitute 'controlled for another person's gain'.? Kerb crawlers to be liable for prosecution after their first offence.? The possible expansion of a scheme in Lambeth, south London, which has impressed ministers, in which offenders are routinely named in local press. ? A stricter licensing regime to make it harder for lap-dancing clubs to open in residential areas.ProstitutionWomenLawguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Sex and the selling of it

Last week during an Intelligence Squared debate on paying for sex, Germaine Greer announced that selling it was better than "selling a child, a kidney or your soul for long hours for wretched pay stacking shelves at Tesco".The English Collective of Prostitutes is similarly telling anyone who'll listen that lap-dancing may be looked down upon but it's a darn sight more lucrative than the menial, low-paid jobs many dancers would otherwise be stuck with - so do-gooders trying to "rescue" women are doing them no favours.Meanwhile, Happy hooker memoirs like that of Belle de Jour - now in its second season as a TV adaptation starring Billie Piper - peddle a rose-tinted view of a world where liberated women in control of their lives make a mint from indulging men's sexual peccadilloes.Now the government is putting the finishing touches to a review of the sex industry that presents a very different picture of exploited, often drug-addicted women running severe risks in exchange for money, most of which ends up in the hands of dealers and pimps.Research suggests up to half of prostitutes were in local authority care as children: two-thirds report experiencing "client violence". About 60 have been murdered in the last decade, according to Home Office figures. Hard to imagine Ms Piper starring in a cheery TV drama about that. So who's right? Is clamping down on the sex industry helping or harming the women who work in it? Is it vulnerable women ministers really care about, or are they pandering to "respectable" people who dislike kerb crawling or the rise of lap-dancing clubs on their neighbourhoods? We're trying in the Observer this Sunday to unpick some of the complex morality of selling and buying sex. Meanwhile for a bit of light relief, my colleague Toby Helm is in Washington this weekend with Gordon Brown to follow the critical summit on the economy.George Osborne's warning today in the Times that Gordon Brown risks a run on the pound by borrowing to fund spending and/or tax cuts - and thereby sending a message that the British economy is in trouble - is starting to create a fine old rumpus. Convention has it that oppositions don't talk about a run on the pound in case the markets respond by, er, starting one.Whether traders, who no longer seem to respond predictably to almighty interventions by the world banking system, can still be so influenced by a shadow chancellor may be debatable, but Osborne is going to have a nervous weekend waiting for the markets to open on Monday.Expect Labour to raise serious questions about his judgment. Iain Dale defends him today but the argument's already starting on Conservativehome.Prostitutionguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

MySpace Sex Offender Charged With Running Fake Internet Church

A convicted pedophile who turned up in MySpace's 2007 purge of sex offenders faces new charges of bank fraud for allegedly running counterfeit checks through a bank account he established for his online church, TruthOfGodMinistries.org. Also, South Carolina is mum on a state worker accused of stealing identity data on nearly everyone in the state.

Sex-matched transplants 'better'

Chances of long-term survival after a heart transplant rise if the donor and recipient are the same sex, researchers say.

Protests As Same-Sex Unions See Defeat In California (AHN)

(AHN) - Campaigners against Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage in California, conceded defeat of their cause on Thursday while gays protested outside a Mormon Church temple in Westwood. - Thu, 6 Nov 2008 22:54:21 GMT

California bans same-sex marriage

Californian voters ban same-sex marriage, months after it was ruled legal by the state's top court.

Why sex gets cocks crowing

A dawn cacophony is a cockerel's attempt to safeguard its unborn offspring at the time of day when predators are about