International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers

NZPC CHRISTCHURCH - 16 December 2006. For the past six months we have tied a black ribbon to a long piece of rope for every known incidence of violence against sex workers in our region. This may include incidences that are reported to us or those we observe when on outreach. The full spectrum is included: from robberies; physcial and sexual violence; condom crimes; refusal to pay and to throwing bottles, eggs and verbal abuse from vehicles at street based sex workers. Link to full story

MURDERED PROSTITUTE ERRATIC, CLIENT TELLS JURY

CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND - 6 December 2005. A Christchurch prostitute was erratic and appeared to have taken drugs just hours before she was strangled to death, a High Court jury heard today. Prostitute Susie Sutherland also seemed in a hurry to "get the job done", one of her last clients said in evidence at the murder trial of Jule Patrick Burns in the High Court at Christchurch. Burns, 30, denies murdering Ms Sutherland last April 16. The Crown alleges Burns, a South African immigrant, engaged Ms Sutherland for sex but attacked her violently afterwards, leaving his DNA under her fingernails after she scratched him on his neck. Link to full story .

RULES CONFINING CHRISTCHURCH BROTHELS QUASHED

CHRISTCHURCH - 29 July 2005. Brothel owners and sex workers are celebrating after a High Court decision in Christchurch quashed parts of a city bylaw which controlled where they could operate.

The council passed a bylaw last year restricting brothels to the central business district, but it was challenged by the Willowford Family Trust, which wanted to run a brothel outside the CBD. It argued that the bylaw was unreasonable and repugnant because it effectively prohibited small suburban owner-operated brothels.

"It inverts a central principle of the act, namely that sex workers ought to be able to practice in a safe, open and secure environment," Willowford Family Trust lawyer Gerard McCoy QC said in June.

Justice Panckhurst said the bylaw was not valid in the terms of the Prostitution Reform Act. He said while the bylaw was not unreasonable, it's practical effect was to prevent the existence of owner-operated brothels and quashed the sections of the bylaw relating to location.

Anna Reed from the Prostitutes Collective says the section of the bylaw was against the intention of the Prostitution Reform Act and was like a smack in the face. "A great victory for whores against laws!" Reed says.

Source: RNZ/One News Go to full media article. Go to NZPC Website

Updated 15 Dec 2006