Law According To A King

 In Britain, the law regarding sex work is complex. Certain acts, namely that of engaging in sex for money, is legal, but a number of related acts, from soliciting in public, 'kerb crawling', managing a brothel, and others are illegal, severely restricting the work of prostitutes and other sex workers. Laws intended to protect sex workers, such as child prostitution, trafficking and the offence of paying a sex worker who has been subjected to force, are haphazardly enforced, leaving sex workers in a grey area - fearing the police and prosecution, but relying on the law to protect them. This blog post will examine some of the key failings in the law that leave prostitutes in dangerous territory, and the fight by groups such as the English Collective of Prostitutes to decriminalise prostitution entirely.  The key legislation outlawing street prostitution, public solicitation, and brothels are the Policing and Crime Act 2009, the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and the Sexual Offences A...

I have just finished my favourite horror film of all time: Psycho . It's an old film, black and white, and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, but it remains my favourite horror, and my go-to sick bed movie. For those of you who don't know, the film features Marion Crane who, after stealing tens of thousands of dollars from her place of work, flees the city of Phoenix, Arizona, to see her boyfriend in California. During a heavy rainstorm, however, Marion pulls into the Bates Motel to seek refuge for the night, where she meets the charming, if a little awkward, Norman Bates who invites her to have dinner. Marion accepts his invitation, but then overhears a fierce argument between Norman and his mother about bringing a woman into their home. Norman brings the sandwiches down to the motel, and they eat in a small sitting room, while Norman tells Marion about his mother, a mentally ill woman who refuses to allow Norman his independence. Moved by his story of family love, Marion decides t...

Hill v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire [1988] 1 AC 53 was a landmark case in establishing limits on third party liability for tortious negligence. The estate of Hill, the final victim of Peter Sutcliffe (better known as the Yorkshire Ripper), sued the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire police, claiming that their failure to apprehend the killer sooner negligently caused her death. Anyone with some knowledge of the Yorkshire Ripper case is aware of the disastrous investigation led by the police, which failed time-and-time-again to catch Sutcliffe, who they had interviewed nine times in connection with the murders. The 1982 Byford report heavily criticised the police for what was, at the time, the largest manhunt in British history – they had focussed too heavily on hoax confessional tapes and letters (against the advice of experts and victims alike) and their poor filing system meant that officers were left underprepared and key connections were not made linking evidence to Sutcl...