A woman who worked as the receptionist at a Midland brothel has escaped jail.

Lisa Barton was arrested when police raided a brothel in Vicar Street, Dudley, where they also found a dungeon, sex toys, contraception, and lists of prices for sexual services.

The woman admitted assisting in the management of a brothel at Wolverhampton Crown Court. When interviewed, Barton told the officers she worked as a receptionist at the brothel for just two days a week – picking up £60 a day.

She was given a 20 week jail term suspended for a year. She was further ordered to carry out 100 hours' unpaid work in the community by Judge Michael Dudley.

Cuddles first hit the news in 2006 after a mass police raid with claims of trafficking and 'rescued' girls.

The Scotsman reported:

Nineteen women believed to have been locked up and forced to become sex slaves have been freed by police after a raid on a massage parlour.

Fifty officers from West Midlands Police, including 25 women, stormed the premises on Thursday evening and arrested two men and a woman who are believed to be the managers. A sawn-off shotgun and three extendable batons were found on the premises, which has an electric fence at the rear.

The girls, who come from Greece, Latvia, Turkey, Poland, Italy, Japan and Hong Kong, were also questioned by police with the help of interpreters.

Police were looking into allegations that they were brought to this country after being promised jobs as nannies and waitresses, and said that immigration officers had been informed.

Detective Inspector Mark Nevitt of West Midlands Police led the operation at the massage parlour. He said: Cuddles massage parlour was targeted as part of intelligence gathered through Operation Strikeout, which targets robberies and violent crime. We went to the property to execute a warrant in human trafficking, and intelligence suggests the girls were brought into the country under false pretences, sold on and held against their will. These girls could be subject to violence, sexual assaults and forced to work as prostitutes. There were 19 women in there in total and they were obviously very distressed so the female officers also helped to calm them down,"

Of course by the time it came to court in 2008 it transpired that the women weren't coerced or trafficked at all, but were working voluntarily for a well-managed brothel.

Manager Susan Richards was jailed for 6 months and owner Carl Pritchett was jailed for two years. Both were also ordered to repay the proceeds of their 'crimes'.

Police Payback Team

Based on article from sundaymercury.net

Carl Pritchett who ran a brothel at Cuddles Massage Parlour in Birmingham has now been jailed for a further seven years for failing to pay back £2m he made from the venture.

Syed Askari, of the Crown Persecution Service, said: The CPS and our partners in the criminal justice system are committed to taking cash out of crime. In enforcing confiscation orders we will robustly pursue defaulters and seek activation of the default sentence by the court where there is wilful non-compliance.

John Barker, from West Midlands Police Central Payback Team, said: Carl Pritchett was made subject of a £2million confiscation order in September 2009. That order was based upon money Pritchett had made, and conceded he had made from prostitution. He was given time to pay, but failed to do so.

That failure resulted in him being jailed for seven years. Despite the term of imprisonment, enforcement of the order will continue until it has been paid in full. Orders made under the Proceeds of Crime Act do not go away and cannot be ignored.

Comment: Legalised Theft

19th July 2010. Thanks to Alan

I think Susan Richards actually got a suspended sentence, and was later threatened with a further fifteen months if she didn't cough up her proceeds of crime. It was clear that she could only do so by selling her house. How the absurd rug-headed twats who issue these orders sleep at night I really don't know. Meanwhile, just down the road in Dudley, a prostitutes' maid earning not much above the minimum wage has got a suspended sentence for involvement in managing a brothel.

The Cuddles case is interesting. At first glance, it looks as if the Sherlocks of the West Midlands vice squad took two and a half years to work out that a massage parlour called Cuddles was a knocking shop. I'd be surprised if it took me two and a half seconds! I have nasty sneaking suspicion that this is yet another case of the pound signs lighting up in Mr Plod's eyes at the prospect of getting a share of the proceeds of crime. Since Plod got to keep some of the dosh, the number of raids on brothels has increased. There has been at least one case down south of a brothel, quietly and sensibly tolerated for years by the local police, who even gave advice on security cameras, being raided after this absurd and iniquitous legislation came in. Sold to cretinous MPs as taking ill-gotten gains off fraudsters and robbers, it has been disproportionately used against tarts and their maids, with the odd pimp thrown in.

A man has been jailed after being caught with a photo of a man having sex with a squid.

A court heard the sea creature was clearly dead in the picture, and a man is seen having sexual intercourse with it. (beware, candidate pictures  can be easily found on Google Images)

Prosecutors amended the charge when it was admitted it could have been an octopus.

Andrew Dymond was charged with possessing an image of someone performing an act of intercourse with a dead animal, namely an octopus/squid, which was grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an obscene character.

He pleaded guilty to a total of 25 porn charges, including possessing child porn and photographic images featuring other animals.

Dymond was jailed for a total of four months. He was also banned from having any contact with children under the age of 16 and put on the sex offenders register for seven years.

Interfact, associated with the UK Private Shop chain, asked the High Court for leave to make a late appeal for a conviction under the VRA.

The case was Interfact Ltd v Liverpool City Council where R18s were sold by mail order from licensed premises.

The High Court held that where defendants had been convicted of criminal offences under national legislation which was unenforceable owing to a failure by the UK to comply with a pre-enactment procedural requirement imposed by EU law, it was not incumbent upon the Court of Appeal to re-open their cases out of time unless their convictions had given rise to any substantial injustice.

The applicants sought to quash their convictions, arguing that the court was required to exercise its discretion to reopen the decision of the Divisional Court and to grant leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal out of time because the earlier decisions were contrary to EU law. They argued that failure to grant the relief sought would infringe the principle of effectiveness in EU law. They contended that because of the government's failure to notify the regulations under which they were convicted to the Commission, their convictions and punishment infringed the prohibition on retrospective punishment under Article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Court dismissed the applications.

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