The UK's first legal red light district has been featured in a BBC documentary.
Focused around crack-addict prostitute sisters Sammie Jo and her 26-year-old sibling Stacey, the documentary tells a chilling tale of how the girls sell their bodies to fund their drug habit.
They work the streets in Holbeck, Leeds, alongside around 30 other women who are permitted to 'kerb crawl' between 7pm and 7am and, as part of the 'deal', police will turn a blind eye to what goes on between those hours.
It's all part of a scheme, which started back in October 2014 and has been hailed a success, to try and get prostitutes to report crimes more often and it seems it's working...
Sammie Jo first started working as a sex worker in Hull when her then wife threw her a pack of condoms and told her to 'go and earn some money' in order to buy more drugs.
She explains: "Then a car stopped and said 'jump in gorgeous' and he asked me what I was offering and I just asked what he wanted because I didn't know how to say it or go about it.
"'He said 'everything, how much is that?' so I said '£100' and he gave me £100."
Sammie Jo can earn anywhere between £20 and £2,000 a night. One of her clients who pays the top bracket likes to be tied up with duct tape and have his nipples clamped.
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Credit: BBC
She does, however, admit she couldn't do her job without crack cocaine and has no choice but to work Holbeck street corners.
The heartbreak at watching her younger sister join the industry comes to the fore every time she does her hair.
"When I'm doing her hair, I dread it," she said. "She's my baby sister and I'm doing it so she can go and shag dirty old men for money."
Prostitution itself isn't actually illegal in the UK but the acts surrounding it, such as soliciting and kerb-crawling, are.
Sex, Drugs, Murder: Life in the Red Light Zone is on BBC Three Tuesdays from 4pm.
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Words by George Pavlou
Featured image credit: BBC
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