PROSTITUTION IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28950, 18 July 1959, Page 13

PROSTITUTION IN BRITAIN

Heavier Penalties In New Law

(Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, July 16. A new law aimed at driving prostitutes off the streets of Britain will go into force today on receiving the Royal assent

The new act (provides heavier penalties, including imprisonment, for streetwalkers, longer terms of imprisonment for those convicted of living on Immoral earnings. and heavier fines for cafe proprietors who allow prostitutes to gather on their premises. Until now. prostitutes have paid a £2 fine for each offence, no matter how often convicted. They are now liable to a £lO fine for a first offence. £25 for a second conviction, and £25 or three months’ imprisonment, or both for a third. Women will be cautioned twice for loitering or soliciting before being taken to court for a first offence. They can apply to a magistrate to have the caution taken off the record if police have no evidence against them. Those convicted of living on immoral earnings may now be gaoled for up to seven years instead of two as previously In 1958. of 136 convictions for thi soffence, 90, or 66 per ce.it., were of persons from the Irish Reoublic and the Commonwealth Cafe owners, formerly liable to fines of £5 for a first offence of harbouring prostitutes and £2O for subsequent offences, can now be fined £2O the first time and £5O later.