One escort has faced everything from violent attacks to sick requests and “clients with tear-jerking stories”.
Victoria Holcombe is a sex worker in Birmingham and has spoken out about the city’s sex industry.
She’s revealed brutal attacks and the “sick responsibility” she feels.
The mum-of-two was assaulted on two separate occasions within months of one another.
In May she was “held hostage with a cricket bat” inside her own Bournville home, and just months prior in September was “dragged” down a city centre road with her arm stuck in a car window.
The 40-year-old said that she can often be “surrounded by f***** a*******”, but she insisted that most of her clients were nice and some had stories “so sad” that she left them in tears.
She told BirminghamLive: "I've left clients' houses crying because I felt so sorry for them.
"Because they're in situations, they get their two hours worth and that's it. One guy is looking after his mum, he's not a very good-looking guy and all the local kids chuck stones at him when he goes to get his mum's shopping.
"You've got another one, he was in a car accident and he's got the same injuries as a stroke. Some of these stories you see are so sad."
But disturbingly, she also gets calls from “paedophiles”, and after the recent violence she’s faced she’s now pushing for urgent changes in the laws and for escorts to be allowed to work in pairs for their safety.
Despite being independent, she’s now going back to work for an agency so they can “filter through” calls to protect herself.
Victoria, who’s seen an influx of drug use in the past year, said that as Amsterdam clamps down on “nuisance” tourism, UK sex workers could see a backlash from it.
The Netherlands capital, which introduced a public weed ban last Thursday (May 25), has plans to remove 100 brothel windows after previously imposing an earlier closing time for sex workers.
"They're going to be coming to me, aren't they?" Victoria said. "There's other countries saying they don't want us either. We're going to have a big ban."
Amid fears for the safety of sex workers here in the UK, Victoria says she wants to take her case to the High Court in a bid to see the law changed to allow escorts to work in twos, like they can in Amsterdam.
"If we're having Amsterdam's traffic, we need to accommodate for that," she said.
