Grimsby Live has returned to the red light district to see how things have changed over the past year. Walking along a street lined with fish factories and industrial buildings, wearing a short cut dress and sun glasses, a young woman smiles and gestures at every car that drives by, hoping that one might stop so that she can try and earn some money to feed her seemingly never ending drug habit.
There are currently between 20 to 30 active prostitutes in Grimsby , with ages raging from 21 to 50, although there have been unconfirmed reports of women selling themselves who are much younger. They cluster around Railway Street, the flyover and Orwell Street. One woman even heads out on crutches, and some working girls are trying to attract customers yards from the spot on Railway Street where a woman was raped.
Grimsby Live spoke with two "working girls", 'Sam', 21, and 'Jane', 35, who both turned to prostitution to fund the drug habit that was practically forced on them by family members that they trusted. Jane can manage on a smaller budget. She managed to beat the heroin habit that crippled her for years, but is still an alcoholic. They have both described what has driven them to sell their bodies to complete strangers, and how they have become desensitised to the work that they do.
Every day that they work on the streets puts them at risk, and they both spoke about the dangerous men they encounter. Although they have also said that they have many "lovely" customers who sometimes just want someone to talk to when they are lonely.
Jane said: "Most of the customers that you meet you never have a problem with, but there are certain types of people and the odd bad one who will be very violent towards us and beat us up. It is like they think that they can do whatever they want to us. There are also younger women that will team up and join three or four men as a pair, but even then its not safe, some of them just don't realise what they are getting themselves into. Then he revealed to me that he actually had a daughter that age and I was sick, I essentially ripped one of his testicles off after that, there was no way I was helping him in that sick fantasy.
