'Clip-joint' hostess stabbed to death

A hostess working in a Soho "clip joint" has been stabbed to death after a row with a customer.

The 23-year-old victim was found lying on the pavement in Archer Street at 7.15pm yesterday and rushed to hospital. Doctors carried out emergency surgery but she died just over an hour after arrival.

Soho's hostess bars are notorious for ripping off customers, having lured them inside with the promise of live sex shows. Those who refuse to pay bar bills which run to hundreds of pounds are intimidated or frog-marched to cash machines by thugs employed by the bars to enforce security.

The knifeman, described as black and in his twenties, is believed to have been a customer at the bar when he became involved in a row. He left the premises, then returned a short while later with a knife and attacked the victim.

A local shopkeeper, who refused to be named, said: "Someone told me it was a row over money."