Judge urges action over prostitutes

A senior judge today urges more effort to save children and women from "lives of slavery" in enforced prostitution.

In a letter to The Times, Mr Justice Singer says tougher laws and a greater police effort are needed to catch the criminal gangs turning to the sex trade as a less risky alternative to drug smuggling.

Calling on the Government to speed up changes in sex laws, currently forecast for 2003, the High Court judge says women and children face conditions of "bonded slavery" while the traffickers make profits in line with the drugs trade.

At present, the judge writes, men or women convicted of controlling prostitution face seven years in jail; those who "cause or encourage" prostitution of girls under 16 face a maximum of only two years. His call follows the head of London's vice squad, Ch Supt Simon Humphrey, telling ministers that they must tackle the growing problem of children being brought into Britain to be used as sex slaves.

Police figures also show that up to three quarters of London's prostitutes now consist of women smuggled into Britain.