Met Police team seeks decriminalisation of street sex work after murders
A new Met Police team in North London is urging an end to criminalising street sex workers so women can report violence, after failings in the Simon Levy murder case.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story.
Metropolitan Police officers have said London policing must move away from criminalising women involved in street sex work, in the wake of the Simon Levy murder case. Levy, a convicted sex offender, was left to kill and rape because of a series of failings by the force.
The force has set up a new female team in North London to try to improve trust and encourage sex workers to report crimes committed against them. Two plainclothes officers, who do not want to be identified, are working on the streets to seek reports of crimes against the women. One officer said every woman they had met had reported something, including rape, punches and other attacks. The officers said that once a woman reports one crime and sees she is being listened to, she often starts to report the next.
Officers described a pattern in which women are too scared to report crimes because they expect to be raped or sexually assaulted by customers, and see this as normal. They said many women believe reporting is pointless because they, rather than the attackers, will get in trouble. One woman said she was scared to contact police after an attack and begged doctors not to call them because she feared arrest. After another attack she was seen by the new team and has since received help.
The operation was created after the Met's grave failure to stop Simon Levy. Levy targeted vulnerable women involved in street sex work and was left free to kill Carmenza Valencia Trujillo and Cheryl Wilkins. The head of the new operation said there was a need to move away from criminalising women. The officer said the approach was an acknowledgement that the force had to change how it worked, and described street-based sex work as the harshest end of violence against women and girls.
A caseworker said the government should fully decriminalise sex work. Women were telling services that they did not want to come forward and report anything to police, which meant more violence would be left unchecked and uninvestigated. Those involved said the systemic changes they want are unlikely to arrive quickly.
On screen
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Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, grouped by how many channels reported each one. Select a dot to see the source excerpt.
| Claim |  |
|---|---|
| Only on one channel | |
| A caseworker said the government should fully decriminalise sex work. | |
| Simon Levy targeted vulnerable women involved in street sex work and was left free to kill Carmenza Valencia Trujillo and Cheryl Wilkins. | |
| The Metropolitan Police created a new female team in North London to improve trust and encourage street sex workers to report crimes against them. | |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
BBC ONE West led its UK coverage with exclusive access to the Met's new female team in North London and the push to stop criminalising street sex work. It centred the story on women's fear of reporting attacks and the force's failure in the Simon Levy case. The segment also carried a caseworker's call for full decriminalisation, but it did not test the policy against government or opposing positions.
- “Police in London need to move away from criminalising women involved in street sex work in the wake of the Simon Levy murder case.”
- “Every single one of them have reported something to us, whether it be they've been raped, they've been punched, they've been attacked in some way, shape or form.”
- “Women are telling us that they do not want to come forward and report anything to the police, which means that even more violence is going to be left unchecked and uninvestigated.”
Broadcast Timeline
News broadcasts tracked for this story, in time order.