THE SEXUAL FREEDOM COALITION

Wednesday 24th October 10.40pm, BBC1 will be transmitting a documentary ONE Life – For One Night Only, about Asta, a disabled man taking some other disabled men to the Costa Brava to lose their virginity.

I took part in this documentary and, although I don't appear in the final programme, I went to the ends of the earth to find the participants so that the documentary could go ahead. The researchers were finding it impossible to find anyone who was prepared to be filmed during such an intimate and important event in their lives. I found two willing men, members of Outsiders: Lee, a visually impaired man and Shah a spinal injured man. I also found a disabled woman called Helen but she was told that the Costa Brava brothel did not cater for women.

During my time discussing this documentary with the star of the show, Asta, I asked him why on earth he had chosen a Spanish brothel. He raved about this establishment which he had stumbled across the previous year when on holiday with his parents. It is apparently like a luxury hotel with a nightclub and wheelchair access as well as equipment such as hoists for disabled people to use in order to be able to enjoy sex just like everybody else. You're probably dying to know the details - the brothel is called Eclipse and the number is 00 34 972 305 268, email info@eclipse-show-girls.net., website http://www.eden-night-club.net/eclipse/

Asta's ambition is to inspire the British to have similar brothels for disabled people, and to create a Love Revolution, where people become eager to learn about the love that disabled people have to offer. He's a man after my own heart.

But Britain will never be able to enjoy such brothels unless big changes are made. We do have some very nice brothels, massage parlours, saunas, call them what you will, up and down the country, but none of them are going to invest in ramps, lifts, hoists and expensive refurbishment while they are getting raided by the police and all their assets seized. The police who raid them are generally quite familiar with them, dropping by to offer friendly advice on good practice, and probably getting a freebie in return.

While the sad old feminists are banging on about the millions of trafficked women being forced to work as prostitutes in British cities, the Home Office have to be “seen to be doing something” about it. Operation Pentameter cost £5m and found only 80 trafficked girls, some of whom had been brought to Britain voluntarily. The Home Office did not give up - they were on to a good thing, because the police are able to get court orders to seize the assets of each brothel, which often totals hundreds of thousands of pounds. This money is divided four ways, to the Police, the Crown Prosecution, the Home Office and the Immigration Office.

Now, if this does not make the State into a the biggest pimp in the country, I don't know what does! It's a straight forward case of “living off immoral earnings” contravening the 1956 Sexual Offences Act.

To add insult to injury, the end result is that the brothel owner gets “exposed” in the gutter press, sent to prison for two years or else told very politely to “carry on as usual under another name”.

The owner of the Omega Sauna in Sheffield and Winston's in Leeds had his case dismissed because the judge agreed that he could not prosecute a brothel that the police had been condoning for many years. Amusingly Winston's in Leeds is now “carrying on” under the name “Churchill's” and I wonder if the Omega is now called Alpha ? Anyway, “abuse of process” is now being used as a defence if the police have been aware of the brothel for 8 years or more.

Next year, a court case with far more scandalous activities will hit the headlines. I really hope that this will expose the current farce. The powers that be need to stop listening to the anti-sex feminists, permit clients the human right of paying for sex with dignity, and decriminalise sex work, including brothels. Perhaps then, the press will stop using “double pornography” to feature sex work in a saucy, yet derogatory fashion, and society will at last learn what a great job sex workers do.

Dr Tuppy Owens
Founder, TLC Trust
www.tlc-trust.org.uk