Teen-Age Call Girls In Melbourne Espresso Bars

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29383, 9 December 1960, Page 11

Teen-Age Call Girls In Melbourne Espresso Bars

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

MELBOURNE, Dec. 8. Girls aged 13 and 14 were being procured for immoral purposes in some espresso coffee bars, the Chief Secretary (Mr A. G. Rylah) told the Victorian Legislative Assembly yesterday. “A lot of this is occurring in some of these rather disreputable espresso bars or cafes, and I am sure the public should know this,” he said. Mr Rylah said that police were “very, very worried.” Some of the girls were from homes where parents believed they were under control, he said. Mr Rylah, speaking in the debate on the estimates. Was commenting on allegations made earlier by a Government member, Mr J. Wheeler. Mr Wheeler said many of the espresso bars, were a breeding ground for crime. Some were places of ill repute, with teenage callgirls. Some added drugs to soft drinks and coffee. “When you go through the front

door you see juke boxes and pinball machines. Then you find some disreputable crummy loafing characters sitting in the dark with teen-age girls, some of them only 13 or 14,” he said. Mr Wheeler added: “Some of these 13 or 14-year-olds are working as call girls for the proprietors. These shops are places of ill-repute.” In some of the espresso, bars drugs were added to soft drink and coffee, he said. The Chief Secretary’s Department should help police by licensing the espresso bars, so that if there was repetition of an offence they could be closed down. Alt present proprietors could be fined, but the espresso bar still went on. More police should be assigned to handling espresso bars, he said. Mr Rylah, commenting on Mr Wheeler’s allegations, said: “I think it would be fair to say there are a few espresso bars in the suburbs giving police a great amount of concern, and there is no doubt the descriptions he gave of an espresso bar is a fair description of some of these places.” Mr Rylab said he. had discussed the problem with police and policewomen handling it, and they were very worried that younger girls seemed to be involved. “This sort of thing has been going on for some time,” he said. “The ages of the girls used to be 16, 17, 18, but what is concerning police is that girls of 13 and 14 are being procured for these immoral purposes." '