However, the pair then had a disagreement and got into a tussle. The man was arrested a short time after the incident on suspicion of assault, sexual assault, and criminal damage. He later admitted to damaging a car and was fined, but he was never charged for the other alleged offences. Louise, on the other hand, was summoned to court for wasting police time.

Louise said the police told her they wanted to interview her after they found discrepancies in her statement but, she said, she had given this in the back of a police van while still in shock.



“I was in an absolute state,” she told BuzzFeed News. “I felt like I had to give a statement even though I was in trauma. I was crying. I was hysterical.” She said that she did not immediately disclose to police the fact that she had been hired for a kissogram, and she believes this is why Sussex police later decided to prosecute her.

“It just beggars belief. They arrested me because the statement, I got it wrong. The bits I got wrong were minor. I believed I was going to prison. I didn’t even know what I’d done wrong.

“I didn’t say why I was there – that I was a kissogram. I was embarrassed, I didn’t want to talk about it. I didn’t feel it was of any relevance why I was there.”

Louise said her statement had been taken by a lone male officer, while Stacey Clare from the East London Strippers Collective said Louise’s treatment had not been in accordance with how victims of alleged sex crimes should be treated.



“The whole [alleged] sexual assault side of it was completely ignored,” Clare said. “She wasn't offered any support, she wasn't taken to a SARC [Sexual Assault Referral Centre].

“They just terrified her. She's got a family. It's been very, very stressful. Finally the trial happens and she's found not guilty.”

“There’s a hundred or more like me,” Louise said. She believes other entertainers have also been targeted by the police.

“I’d not even had a speeding fine, never been in that situation before. I was totally intimidated,” she said.

Louise complained about her treatment to Sussex police, and in a response seen by BuzzFeed News, the force said that “there was no requirement for specialist officers to take your statement” and that she “did not appear to be distressed”.



The response also said that the male officer who took the statement “did so in accordance with Sussex Police policy”.

Investigating officer Detective Constable Brad Lozynski told BuzzFeed News: “During the initial call to police, the [woman] reported she had been grabbed but didn't make any allegation of rape. She told the call-takers then her occupation. A victim would only be taken to the SARC if they reported a sexual offence, which she didn't. If she had reported any sexual offences we would, of course, offer the support she needed.



“She named the man she was accusing of grabbing her and he was arrested that night. We asked Essex police to collect her clothing for any forensic evidence for the allegations of assault she had made.

“The woman was met by officers at her car in Brighton on the night of the report, and gave an initial statement. She gave a second statement [three days later]. CCTV was reviewed, the woman was invited in for an interview and summoned to court. She was never arrested. She faced trial and was acquitted last month.”

When BuzzFeed News asked why the man had been arrested on suspicion of sexual assault if this was not the crime Louise had reported, a spokesperson said: “The woman reported being grabbed and being touched over her clothing. While this would constitute sexual assault by touching, it would not result in the allocation of a sexual offences liaison officer or a visit to a SARC. We do take our support to victims of sexual crime very seriously and even in the circumstances mentioned here, would seek to provide advice and assistance if requested.”

Another sex worker told BuzzFeed News that officers in Scotland seemed more interested in discerning her line of work than in investigating an alleged assault.

Samira (also not her real name) told BuzzFeed News that she was sexually assaulted by a man she had contracted to do work for her some years ago. She described how she had been groped to the local CID, but said they were more interested in her work. She said that when she went to the police, she felt that the questions she was asked were completely inappropriate.

The police said “it was a ‘lesson in communication for everyone'”, she says. “If I didn't tell him not to grab my breast...how did he know it was inappropriate?

“It coloured how I view the police,” Samira added. “I'd be loath to approach them as [her professional name] if that's how I was treated as me.”

A spokesperson for Police Scotland said that tackling sex crimes is a priority for the force, and that it will treat all reports of sexual crime “with the utmost seriousness”, adding: “Officers may ask a victim questions surrounding their personal circumstances, in certain cases, and always for the purposes of the investigation. This is purely to ensure their welfare and that they are not also the victim of other criminality, such as trafficking or exploitation.”

The spokesperson said that “the focus of the investigation will always be the perpetrator”, adding: “It is of the highest importance to us that victims of sexual crime receive the best possible service and a matter of concern when anyone reports that they are unhappy with how they have been treated by our officers.”

They stressed that they want to encourage victims to come forward and said they “can be confident that we will listen to them and investigate their report thoroughly”.

But Samira said that did not match her experience. She had expected a more sympathetic response from police after she navigated her way out of what she felt was a risky situation.

“You're terrified he'll turn violent, you're terrified of rape,” she said. “I don't think anyone realises the fear and vulnerability thrown on to you until you're there.”

The English Collective of Prostitutes believes that these are not isolated cases, and that often sex workers are not being treated in accordance with the Victims' Code, which should guarantee a number of things, including a written acknowledgement, information on what to expect from the criminal justice system, and an enhanced service for victims of serious crime, or those who are persistently targeted, vulnerable, or intimidated.

“The number of instances and the regularity that this kind of thing occurs [with] in our industry is beyond belief,” Stacey Clare from the ELSC agreed. “The worst of it is this sense that we've got no defence, we've not got disciplinary procedures in clubs, we don't have an ombudsman, there's no complaints commission for us to go through, and for so many sex workers it's just like it or lump it, just suck it up. There's no means to justice and I'd like to see that change," she added.

“I've put myself in risky situations more times than I can remember. I've seen police let down other people so many times that I don't put all my faith in them. In the context of doing sex work and stripping, I wouldn't trust the police.”