It’s over ten years since the strangled body of Emma Caldwell was found in woods near Biggar. Her killer has never been brought to justice. Emma was a street sex worker, a sister, a daughter and a friend.
On the face of it, the Police Scotland investigation which ensued was on a massive scale. Costing over £4m and with hundreds of hours of interviews, to some, it came as a shock when the case collapsed. However, it was not a shock to one officer of Police Scotland.The evidence submitted to the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service included recorded evidence from four Turkish suspects, translated by constable Aksoy Ozer, who subsequently became a whistle blower and said he was asked to suppress evidence during the investigation.
Throughout the investigation there was one suspect’s name which came up again and again. The Sunday Herald knows the individual's identity but has chosen not to name him for legal reasons. He was interviewed six times, changing his story frequently and even led officers to the spot where Emma’s body had been found, in spite of previously denying knowing her. He has never been arrested. Rather than pour all of their resources into solving Emma’s murder as a cold case, this week has seen the news that Police Scotland targeted the phones of police officers suspected to be journalistic sources to establish where leaked information regarding the case was coming from.
Emma’s story is all too common. Solving crimes against sex workers is half hearted, to be kind. The responsibility for that approach starts with the press, and societal attitudes. Looking back over press coverage of her murder, a number of columnists refer to Emma as a “prostitute”. The term “prostitute” is a legal term and so implies the commission of a crime. The number of people in Scotland who think that buying and selling sex is a crime is frightening. It isn’t a crime - solicitation is a crime. It isn’t so long since “bastard” was considered a perfectly acceptable term in court for the child of an unmarried mother, and all of the stigma that came with that. We’ve moved on, both in terminology and stigma. It’s time to do the same with sex work.
We’ve all sat in living rooms on a Sunday afternoon with a family member who picks up a newspaper and reads a story such as Emma’s. What follows is a sucking of air through the teeth, a shake of the head and a “God love her.” That’s at best. In other households you’ll hear, “well, if she WILL choose that life”.
Let’s consider that if that news piece began, “Beloved teacher …”, the reaction would be one of instant outrage, and a demand for justice. Not so for Emma, or any of the other sex workers murdered in Glasgow at that time, perhaps as it was speculated, at the hands of a serial killer.
Sex workers deserve justice. It is simply not acceptable to play the blame game, not on the part of society and certainly not on the part of the police. To say that the police dropped the ball in Emma’s case is a gross understatement. The failure of Police Scotland to rigorously see her perpetrator brought to justice speaks volumes, and enforces the apathy of many.
In recent years, the policing of sex work in Scotland has plummeted in standards of professionalism and common decency. The raids on Edinburgh saunas, some of which have been running for thirty years, saw sex workers pulled out onto the street in their underwear to waiting photographers. Their money and phones were taken and a male officer reportedly walked in to a room in the middle of a strip search. Police Scotland continue to use condoms as evidence of illegality - against all international guidelines - meaning the rates of STI’s among sex workers have increased. Is this how we treat “vulnerable women”? Really? How should any woman be treated whether she is a sex worker or a member of the Scottish Women’s Rural Institutes?
The continuance of Operation Lingle is another ongoing concern. Here the police persist in “welfare visits” to the homes of sex workers, which put them in danger of being identified and subsequently losing their properties. It’s also a very frightening experience for most women, and only serves to widen the divide between the police and the sex work community. The time has come for a major over haul of the policing of sex work in Scotland. In Northern Ireland, surprisingly, success has been achieved. Having dedicated sex work liaison officers, Police Service Northern Ireland work very closely with Sex Workers Alliance Ireland and put the welfare of sex workers to the forefront.
With this policy, a crime is a crime, regardless of any victim’s “status”. In spite of many attempts by hapless politicians, the sex industry is going nowhere. It's been here forever and it will be around forever.
Meanwhile, Emma Caldwell’s story refuses to go away.
Laura Lee is a sex worker, an advocate for sex workers' rights and a writer.
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