Sex worker asks parliament for undercover ban in decriminalisation inquiry

Police are using undercover tactics to film and prosecute sex workers but such traps are only legal in cases of “serious criminal behaviour”, MPs have been told.

An Adelaide sex worker has asked state parliament to ban police undercover operations used to entrap sex workers and secure convictions.

The woman has presented evidence of the practice to a parliamentary inquiry on the decriminalisation of sex work, including legal opinion from prominent Adelaide barrister Claire O’Connor QC.

The sex worker, known only as Stephanie, told parliament in a written submission she had been in the industry for five years and for the first two years was in a relationship with a police officer.

“We would often hear of cases where the police had pretended to be a client and made an appointment with a sex worker. They would then film the interaction,” she states.

“They would then ask them to agree to engage in sexual services in order to prosecute them with prostitution-related offences under the Summary Offences Act.’’

The inquiry heard sex workers were targeted with police powers intended for serious criminals.

Ms O’Connor’s advice was that the tactic was in breach of police powers contained in the Undercover Operations Act of 2009, because sex work was nowhere defined as meeting the act’s definition of “serious criminal behaviour”.

Police can only use undercover entrapment to catch “serious criminals”, which did not include adults paying for sex, Ms O’Connor concluded.

Fines for offences like prostitution are around the same as high-end driving offences.

The Legislative Council has passed a Bill which would eliminate offences surrounding the sex work industry, and a committee is inquiring into the issue before it is debated in the lower house.

A police spokeswoman said SAPOL would not comment on Stephanie’s complaints until it had finished its submission to the same inquiry.

Ms O’Connor also concluded the police use of their mobile phones to record sex workers was also “not lawful”.

Greens MLC Tammy Franks at the International Workers Memorial Day Rally at Parliament House in April. Picture: Mike Burton

Greens MLC Tammy Franks who is chair of a current parliamentary inquiry into the decriminalisation of prostitution, has established the authenticity of Stephanie, as a sex worker in considering the submission.

The Select Committee on the Repeal of Sex Work Offences Bill is inquiring into legislation which would abolish offences relating to prostitution in SA.

Stephanie asked the committee to consider the conflict of interest within police services which had to protect workers, but also bust them.

She said as sex workers had no legal status, police could not protect them.

Stephanie told The Advertiser she was still considering whether to give verbal evidence to the committee.

“We would like to be able to report crimes against us to the police, and we all agree that we don’t want organised crime or traffickers being a part of the sex industry,” she said.