LOCAL FEATURE

Sex in the city

Illegal brothels are ourishing in Melbourne and the authorities are struggling to stop them. By BEAU DONELLY

he had signed up to work in a brothel. But when Jessica arrived in Australia from south-east Asia, the young mother didnt expect that her passport would be conscated or that she would have to work off a debt to her trafckers. She didnt know that she would have to live inside the brothel, on-call 24-hours a day, forced to have unprotected sex with countless men. If she had, she says, she would have continued working at the brothel in her home country, where she was barely earning enough to pay off rising medical bills. They said it would be the same as in my country, Jessica recalls. They said it was safe. But I had to do everything. All of this with no condoms. Jessica had a valid student visa when she arrived. It had been arranged by the trafckers who were well aware of Australian laws that allow international students to earn a living as sex workers. After receiving directions via a payphone at the airport and parting ways with the young women she travelled with, Jessica made her way to a legal innercity brothel. When she arrived she gave $1000 the trafcker had given her to the brothel owner; a transaction she now believes was a nders fee payment. She was then forced to sign a contract that would effectively have her working as a sex slave for the next three months. Jessica is now safe, but her story is not uncommon. The federal governments Support For Trafcked People program has assisted 191 people since 2004, the majority of whom were forced into the sex industry. But due to the nature of sex slavery, the number of women trafcked to Melbourne and Sydneys inner-city and suburban brothels is likely to be much higher. Melbourne support group for women in the sex industry, Project Respect, has supported 20 trafcked women in the past 12 months.

ROB BANKS

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LOCAL FEATURE

WICKED WEB: Screen grab from the Sweetybabe website

Executive director Kelly Hinton suspects many more women who have come through her doors were also trafcked.This is trafcking for the purpose of exploitation, she says, adding that Jessica was tricked into harsh conditions and forced to sign a contract.She was in debt and wasnt allowed to use condoms and she could never decline to do a service because once she signed the contract she thought she had no rights.

Two weeks ago, ofcers from

Victoria Polices newly-formed Sex Industry Co-ordination Unit (SICU) swooped on a business in Melbournes south-east.The taskforce was established on February 29 to coincide with legislative changes that made police the lead agency for investigations into the multi-million dollar illegal prostitution industry. They charged a 66-year-old Bentleigh woman and a 64-year-old Ormond woman with forcing a child to have sex for money. The business was one of about 100 licensed brothels in the state. The legal sex industry estimates there are 300-400 unlicensed brothels across Victoria with links to human trafcking, tax evasion and organised crime. Government corruption has also been a problem. City of Yarra planning enforcement co-ordinator

Ken Wolfe last year pleaded guilty to taking more than $130,000 in bribes from illegal brothel operators. It was Wolfes job to enforce sex laws and shut down illegal brothels from Fitzroy to Richmond. An enforcement ofcer from Darebin council was also stood down in 2011 after it was revealed that he was involved in the illegal sex trade. According to a Productivity Commission report released last month, local councils responsible for brothel planning, zoning and workplace health and safety, continue to identify illegal brothels and co-ordinate further enforcement with state and federal government agencies.The job of investigating illegal brothels has traditionally been split between councils, local and federal police, consumer affairs and the tax and immigration departments. Port Phillip council conducted eight investigations into illegal and legal brothels in the 2011-12 nancial year.Three legal brothels were found to be breaching their permits and the council pursued two cases at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. Echoing the ndings in the report, Port Phillip council and the Australian Adult Entertainment Industry, the body that represents Victorias legal brothels, want police to take a more active role in the crackdown against illegal brothels. Port Phillip mayor Rachel Powning said council ofcers continued to investigate illegal brothels before referring them to the police.Police are better

positioned to investigate and pursue allegations around illegal brothels due to the broader issues such as criminal activity and other related offences, Cr Powning said. Any action taken under planning legislation for illegal land use generally results in an operator moving to another premise. Under local laws, councils have the power to prohibit the use of a premises where an illegal brothel is run for up to three months. But the legal sex industry claims this does nothing to deter illegal brothel operators who easily set up shop somewhere else. AAEI spokesman William Albon commended Port Phillip council on its work against illegal brothels but conceded local laws were too restrictive.Regrettably, the council can only use planning law and go after the owners of the land where the illegal brothel is sited, he said. Rarely is the owner of the land the illegal brothel operator.

Since it was set up, SICU has

investigated three illegal brothels. One of them is located in the City of Port Phillip, where South Melbourne has 10 per cent of Victorias licensed brothels. However, the taskforce has failed to identify a new breed of brothel, which began promoting its prostitution racket through website Sweetybabe.net. Sweetybabe clients access photo galleries and descriptions of sex workers available today, who are promoted as a mix of students, ofce ladies and clubbing girls in their late teens and early 20s.The

website details the sex services provided and costs, starting at $350 an hour. Contact with the brothel operator is made via a 24-hour customer service hotline or Chinese social networking website QQ. The illegal brothel employs at least 19 sex workers and was set up the day before SICU launched. Six new sex workers have been promoted online in the past week. The racket, allegedly run by a Chinese syndicate that has spread from the suburbs to inner-city hotels, has recently made inroads across state borders to Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. A mobile phone app to complement the website is under construction. Victoria Police Inspector Trevor Cornwill, who lead SICU until last week, said the taskforce was not investigating any brothels operating out of Melbourne hotels or Sweetybabe.net. We are investigating one illegal brothel in Melbourne CBD based at a xed address, he said.We havent looked at any hotels. Asked whether he suspected an illegal brothel was running out of Melbourne hotels, Inspector Cornwill said he wouldnt be surprised.Yes, its possible because these illegal brothels are quite uid in that theyll set up in one place and then move to another place. It wouldnt surprise me at all. Sweetybabe clients are not told which hotel will be used until the day of the rendezvous; they are typically met by staff in the hotel lobby and given a key pass to access the elevators and hotel room. In some cases the illegal brothel operator uses one hotel room as a reception area, showing clients a line-up of sex workers and providing pre-booked rooms. A customer who attended the mobile brothel operating out of rooms at Crown Towers on four occasions since March said he was offered sex each time and told he could request different women. He was asked to pay $350 an hour or $550 for two hours in return for sexual services. The customer attended West Melbournes Flagstaff City hotel last month, where he was introduced to ve women who were providing sex services out of two rooms. He was also offered sex at the Grand Chancellor in June. In a members-only forum on Chinese dating website CatchGod, another client of the mobile brothel described his encounter

with a Sweetybabe sex worker at Crown. He wrote that the sex worker charged $350 an hour for sexual services without a condom. Its worth the money, he wrote. This weekend Im very satised. Thanks to the Sweety girls for providing a high-quality girl. The hotels have denied any knowledge of brothel activity.

Sex industry sources say

they are concerned that the new police taskforce is too focused on illegal brothels operating in the suburbs to shut down the mobile brothel operating in the city.The owner of one of Port Phillips 12 legal brothels, who asked not to be named, was doubtful a small team of police ofcers could effectively crack down on operators.Ive heard about the new team, but there are not enough of them, the owner said.The problem is so big illegal brothels are booming. One former brothel manager said he knew many Chinese sex workers who quit their jobs in legal brothels to work for the mobile syndicate. He said the women earned more money working for the mobile brothel because the customers, mostly young Chinese students, were prepared to pay more to avoid going to street-front brothels.

Since 2009 there has been a push to introduce signs in the reception area and all rooms of legal brothels that describe what sex slavery is and provide the phone numbers of local and federal police. However, unless the signs are displayed in languages other than English and unless the state government is on board, critics argue they will be useless. Through an interpreter, Jessica said she was forced to sign a contract when she arrived in Australia. She believed she was not allowed to leave the brothel and with no understanding of local laws, she went to work. When a customer came in we all came out from the room and line up. Jessica said she paid a cut of her wage to the brothel owner, the trafcker and the Malaysian agent who recruited her. Along with the Malaysian, Chinese and Korean women she lived with, some who were also trafcked, Jessica was available for sex 24-hours a day, seven days a week before she nally escaped. (Jessicas name has been changed)
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LOCALNEWS

Hotels unaware of brothels

BY BEAU DONELLY
bdonelly@fairfaxmedia.com.au

A PROSTITUTION racket is running illegal brothels out of at least three inner-city hotels under the nose of a new police taskforce set up to crack down on Victorias multi-million dollar unlicensed sex industry. An RL investigation has revealed that at least 19 women work for a Chinese syndicate operating out of hotel rooms at Southbanks Crown Metropol, the Hotel Grand Chancellor on Lonsdale Street and West Melbournes Flagstaff City motel.

The mobile brothel promotes its services through Chinese website Sweetybabe.net. All three hotels have denied any knowledge of the syndicate, saying they have a zero tolerance policy on illegal activity. The Victoria Police sex industry co-ordination unit, formed in February to crack down on illegal brothels with links to human trafficking, child sex work, tax evasion, organised crime and government corruption, said it was not investigating the mobile brothel. The taskforce has three active investigations into illegal broth-

els in Melbourne. Inspector Trevor Cornwill, who headed SICU until last week, said the taskforce had no knowledge of the mobile brothel syndicate, which has been operating out of the 658-room Crown Metropol, less than a kilometre from Melbournes police headquarters. We are investigating one illegal brothel in Melbourne CBD based at a fixed address, he said. We havent looked at any hotels. Mr Cornwill also confirmed Sweetybabe.net was not under investigation. Crown spokesman Gary ONeill said he was unaware of

any brothel operating out of Crown hotels, adding that the organisation had a strictly enforced policy prohibiting prostitution. Hotel Grand Chancellor general manager Haydn Grant said he was surprised by the news. It would be highly unusual for this to happen [but] ultimately it is going to be extremely difficult for the hotel to intervene when its done in such a covert way. Flagstaff City spokesman Tony Zhang said staff asked unfamiliar guests to present their room key. FULL REPORT P9

49

Victoria reeling in film, television business

DARREN JAMES

MORE than $150 million was injected into Victorias film and television industry in the past 12 months, up 90 per cent on the year before. Innovation, Services and Small Business Minister Louise Asher has announced an extra 6500 film and television production jobs were created across the state in the 2011-12 financial year. Ms Asher said the robust growth was a result of Film Victoria helping secure for the state 13 films, 28 television series and 13 games projects. City of Port Phillip arts administrator Amanda Swinton said the council had issued 31 permits to film around the city in July, marking a significant contribution to the states booming film and television industry. Port Phillip and South Melbourne especially is a hub of film and television production houses, Ms Swinton said. We have two major series filming here at the moment, The Block just finished and we also get an inf lux of student filmmakers around this time of year. Ms Asher said local production was thriving. It has been a robust year for the Victorian screen industry, marked by significant local and footloose production activity, she said. South Melbourne visual effects company Iloura announced a boom in business in the past three years after

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MOVIE MAKERS: Visual effects artists Jono Freisler and David Johnson with computer graphics supervisor Avi Goodman; all worked on the Hollywood hit movie, Ted
expanding its workforce by almost 400 per cent. Iloura won the contract to create and animate recently released American production Ted and for the first time began working simultaneously on two feature films last month. Iloura spokeswoman Caroline Pitcher said the business would be unable to take on any more work until next year. She credited Film Victoria with attracting national and international productions to the state. It has had a direct impact on the growth and success of our business, she said. Ms Pitcher said a federal government offset that gave local companies the edge against strong international competition and a high Australian dollar also played an important part. Film Victoria chief executive Jenni Tosi said Ilouras work on Ted was evidence of Victorias outstanding reputation for visual effects artists. [It]will further consolidate Victoria as an international film city, with superb post and visual effects facilities, and talented technicians that deliver cutting edge results. BEAU DONELLY
AUGUST 15, 2012
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ARI HATZIS

Bust flagged on outlaw hotel prostitution ring

BY BEAU DONELLY
bdonelly@fairfaxmedia.com.au

QUOTABLE WE HAVE BEEN

CHECKING EVERY DAY. WE ARE NOT BEING INVESTIGATED.

SUNNY SIDE UP
AUSTRALIAN Youth Climate Coalition members Liv Metter, Sam Medley and Jill Beale (pictured) are behind a renewable energy project that has so far raised $1600 to install solar panels at Blessington Streets Lentil As Anything vegetarian restaurant. Beale, an arts student, is one of seven guest speakers addressing Bayside Climate Change Action Groups Evening of Youth on August 28. The forum is at Sandringham Uniting Church Hall, 29 Trentham Street, Sandringham, from 7.30pm. Details: email secretary@bccag.org.au.

POLICE will investigate an illegal prostitution business that advertises on Chinese social media and operates in Melbournes top hotels. Following a Review Local investigation, website Sweetybabe.net shut down but it has assured its clients it will be back in business. The mobile-brothel operator closed its website after an article was published last week exposing its operations at three hotels, including Crown Metropol, Hotel Grand Chancellor and Flagstaff City. All three have denied any knowledge of illegal prostitution. Last week Sweetybabe assured its clients via Chinese-language social networking website QQ that it was not under police investigation. We have been checking every day, one of Sweetybabes posts said. We are not being investigated. A Victoria Police spokeswoman

said the police were committed to investigating all reports of matters of this nature and will look into the allegations made in the article. She would not provide details of ongoing investigations, but said translators were available to Police. We are seeing illegal activities conducted in new ways such as via websites and social media, the spokeswoman said. Victoria Police is adopting appropriate strategies to meet these changing dynamics. Sweetybabes closure sparked heated discussion on QQ among Sweetybabe clients. In one post, Sweetybabe quoted from the Review Local article that the former head of Victoria Polices

Sex Industry Coordination Unit (SICU), Inspector Trevor Cornwill, confirmed the website and its operator were not on the units radar. SICU was set up to Victorias illegal brothels. In another post, Sweetybabe told a group with 183 members that the sex workers had been exposed but they were still available. The Sweetybabe website was set up in February, a day before SICU the leading police agency for investigations into Victorias multi-milliondollar illegal prostitution industry was established. Sweetybabe increased its number of sex workers to 19 last week and were advertising as having girls available in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. A mobile phone app was due for release before the website shut down. Sweetybabe advertises its services to white-collar clients. We are the busiest in all Australia, the website boasted before it closed.

VOX POP IS THERE ENOUGH SPACE IN PORT PHILLIP TO WALK DOGS OFF LEASH?
TIM McDOWELL, Middle Park There is plenty of space at Albert Park but it would be good to have a bit more, closer to the lake, as well. If we had better access to the beach with fewer restrictions I would go there more often. GREG DOYLE, St Kilda I have been pulled up for having a dog offleash just before the leash-free area at the start of the park. On weekends theres too much sport and nowhere to let a dog run. In summer you cant walk a dog along the beach even with a leash. They need to open up more parks as leash-free zones. JOHN LEVER, Middle Park There are enough leash-free parks around. If it is not a leash-free park just put the dog on the lead and walk it like normal. City of Port Phillip has done a good job providing leash-free areas. Theres enough space here to let a dog run without interfering with anyone else.

LOCALSAY What changes would you make for exercising dogs? EMAIL US yoursay@fairfaxmedia.com.au

AUGUST 22, 2012

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