[INTRIGUING MUSIC] This film features interviews with four women who were working in the sex trade in Newport, Wales. To protect the privacy of these workers, only their first names are used, and a voice actor reads the words of one of the women. Paula, an outreach worker, spoke with each of the women. [DING, SPLASH]: “It’s a nice place, you know? It’s not a place where you’ve got men running it. You’ve got the ‘you will go and see the clients, or you will go and do this, or you will go and do that.’” It’s choices, isn’t it? “Everybody, it’s their — if they don’t want to see a client, they don’t have to see a client. Nobody’s forcing anybody to go and do anything.” And I think the focus with any man running a place is financial. If somebody comes to the door, you’re going to see them. And that’s when there’s that danger of the violence and the pressure and the intimidation and things. And it gets nasty and seedy then, doesn’t it? “It is.” It shouldn’t be ever acceptable that somebody can take a hiding because that person felt like giving more. “Or do something that they don’t want to do. You know what I mean? Obviously, girls have got their different things on what they do do in the rooms. Each woman is different. If a woman doesn’t want to do something, she doesn’t have to do it, not for money, not for love, not for nothing. You know, that is her choice. That is her body.” “I’m doing this because it’s difficult finding a job. It’s hard, and especially now. I’d say the country, at the moment, is a nightmare. And this pays, obviously, cash in hand. And it’s so much easier. I think it doesn’t matter what you get. Even uni students, they’ve gone to uni to do a specific thing. And then they come out, and it’s impossible. As far as my mom was concerned, me and my sister was stupid. We were thick. We didn’t know anything. So consequently, my G.C.S.E.s came back, and they were rubbish. What she was trying to do was, ‘You’re stupid, prove me wrong.’ But then she drummed into us so much that we believed it. So in the end, I thought, I’m stupid. And then I end up in pubs, and then I’m here. It’s crazy. Crazy.” [MUSIC DOWN SPIRALS] [INTRIGUING MUSIC] “When I was 18, I figured I thought I’d just go out and make my own money. And I heard of escorting. And I didn’t really knew what it entailed, to be honest. I just thought it was going out for meals casually. I thought that was escorting, like escorting a man to a dinner and things like that. And then, obviously I realized that it wasn’t. But it was a bit too late to back out then. I didn’t want to look silly. I thought it was quite easy, really. And the money I was making, I never would have imagined it. I just liked the lifestyle. I mean, I have a completely regular life outside of work. I have a boyfriend that doesn’t know what I do, a family that doesn’t know what I do anymore. They think I work in an office. I’ve just learned to be a very good liar. [SOFTLY CHUCKLES] He doesn’t have a clue, and I would never want him to. I dress up in officewear to come to work. Do you know what I mean? I’m pretty good. Often, I get home about 10 minutes before he gets back from work. And I can just put the fire on and put the heating on, like I’ve been home for longer than I have. I find it hard to lie. I feel guilty for lying. Nobody deserves for anybody to be doing this behind anybody’s back. And the lying is hard. Because of this job, I don’t trust men, because it opens my eyes to what so many of them are like. And most of them are happily married. How can you do that to someone at home? How can you do that? I don’t want to be in this forever, anyway. [SOFTLY CHUCKLES]: It’s getting tedious.” “I was with a guy who I was forced to work. I was 15, and he was 21. I met him in a party, and normal scenario. Yeah, you’re seeing this guy, flattering, nice. Caused an argument with my mother. You know, it was like, my mom kicked me out. ‘OK, you can come and live in Cardiff.’ I was young. I was young. I was naïve. I’d never known about this industry, do you know what I mean? I can remember my first client. And I can remember him walking on the street and saying, there’s one. I was like, there’s what? Can you ask him? And it was on the street. And I can remember thinking, if I come to this, you know, with my mom, and then it just goes down from there. Before you know it, they’ve taken everything, everything away from you, stripped everything. Little by little, they will strip everything — your confidence. Without them, you’re nothing. You’re frightened. The only person is him, and that’s it. You’ve got nobody else. And that’s it. You’re isolated from everybody — everybody. You are with him. You got a problem, you speak to him. But it comes to a point where you think, well, you can’t take no more. You know, he took everything. He took my innocence. He took everything away. And he’s an asshole to this day.” [BOTH LAUGH] “We’re nothing.” Yeah, yeah. “You know? But I wouldn’t let anybody drag me down like that. I would never, ever, ever let it. I wouldn’t. Honestly, I really wouldn’t stand by and let anybody do it to someone I knew, because there is ways out. It’s hard. It’s not easy. It’s hard.” “Some of them get married. And their attitude of sex with a woman makes you wonder, poor wife. Imagine. I have to stay with you half-hour, but your wife? I’m not speaking like being an animal. Like, proper sex is rough for them. I understand if you have no wife. Come here. OK, release. No, but some of them are really fucked in the head. Honest to God. I don’t know. All the world is going like, money, sex, money, sex. That’s it. The man is like the owner. They own you. You know, it’s like you go to Tesco, and you buy that piece of chicken. It’s yours. You do what you want. You can put in garbage. You can eat it. It’s up to you. It’s the same for them. They want, for that money, to be respected. Some of them, they want to talk. Some of them, they are incapable to do nothing. They just need company. Sometimes I find myself listening to them. And I wonder, who is most lonely, me or them?” “Because I started over Cooperation Road when I just got a little flat. And then, obviously girls come to work. And I thought, you know, this area is no good. I wanted a garden for the girls to sunbathe. [CHUCKLES] And I just moved here. And we want nothing that I planned. I hadn’t planned anything. I knew I couldn’t go out and get another job, because of my record. It was something that has to be dragged up and explained. And, you know, you can’t explain that, actually from 14, I was pimped. I was made to do it. It’s embarrassing, do you know?” Your experiences, as well, as negative as a lot of them have been, have put you in good stead to understand and know exactly what you want and where you’re going. “Yeah.” [SOFT PIANO MUSIC]