Violence against sex workers going underreported, warns Peterborough Women's Aid
The warning comes after a man was jailed for killing a sex worker in the county
A domestic abuse group in Cambridgeshire has warned there could be many cases of violence against sex workers that are not being reported.
The warning comes after Jon Ismaili was jailed for at least 18 and a half years on Monday after killing sex worker Catalina Birlea at her home in Cambridge last October.
"A lot of the violence, the rapes, the assaults, do go unreported," Mandy Geraghty, from Peterborough Women's Aid, said.
"Sex workers are some of the most vulnerable in our community; we need to understand what their needs are and most importantly, we need to believe them, be non-judgmental and offer the support they desperately need."
Facial recognition used to catch killer
Jurors heard Ismaili travelled to Ms Birlea's home in Chesterton Road on October 2 last year, where he stayed for around two hours and covered his face from CCTV cameras as he left.
A friend then found Ms Birlea unresponsive inside the house 90 minutes later and died at the scene.
A post-mortem confirmed Ms Birlea died as a result of compression to the neck.
Facial recognition technology used by police identified Ismaili as the man entering and leaving the house before he was arrested three days after the attack.
Ismaili, 34 of School Lane, Waterbeach, was found guilty after a trial at Cambridge Crown Court.
Building trust
Cambridgeshire Police have since appealed to those who work in the sex industry and have suffered from violence to come forward.
"The most important (worry) is there is fear around not being believed," Mandy said.
"Crimes against sex workers are often hidden; we need to have more focus on engaging with sex workers, more focus on their trust with authorities such as the police."
Figures from the Home Office show at least 74% of women involved in prostitution have experienced violence from men who buy sex, with more than half of these victims either being raped or sexually assaulted.
While the English Collective of Prostitutes found 42% of sex workers have reported violence from the police , with around 88% of the total number of sex workers in the UK being women.
Appeal for sex workers to speak out
Speaking after Ismaili was found guilty, Detective Inspector Mark Dollard of Cambridgeshire Police said nobody knows why Ms Birlea was killed.
“Only Ismaili knows what happened at the property that morning and why he murdered Catalina," he said.
“Catalina was working as a sex worker that morning, and this case underlines the risks faced by those in this industry.
"To those working in the sex industry who have experienced violence please report it to the police; we will listen, we will investigate without prejudice and we will support you."
Mandy believes the relationship between police and sex workers must improve in order to improve reporting.
"I think there needs to be more community outreach to sex workers to keep them safe to encourage them to report crimes, and I think this will take a lot of work especially from police in terms of building up that relationship," she added.
"Without these changes, perpetrators will continue to assault and rape sex workers and even beyond that, a perpetrator is all about power and control regardless of the occupation of the woman."