"Massage parlours" of Headington and Marston
The above brothel in All Saints Road was raided by 17 officers at 2pm on Friday 1 February 2008. The next day police arrested a man and woman at a house in Stoke Mandeville on suspicion of living off immoral earnings and being involved in the management of a brothel.
This raid was part of Operation Parameter, which investigates human trafficking, and police believe that women from eastern Europe were working at this brothel.
Neighbours have known for about two years that this was a brothel, and it is understood that it is the same one that was evicted some years ago from the new flats at the top of New High Street.
- Oxford Mail, 2 February 2008: "Arrests follow brothel raid"
- Oxford Mail, 1 February 2008: "Complaints prompted brothel raid"
Other "massage parlours" in Headington and Marston
Kitten Club
This club has been all over Headington and Marston, including Awgar Stone Road (off Horspath Driftway). Online reports suggest that most of the girls are Estonian.
They stayed for a long time at 19 Cherwell Drive, which was bought for £240,000 on 13 April 2006. Planning permission was granted on 9 June 2006 for "Erection of two-storey rear extension and sub-division of the proposed extension and existing house to form 2x2 bedroom flats with two off street parking spaces, secure cycle parking and bin storage", and No. 19 was sold again (presumably with the Kitten Club as sitting tenants) for £365,000 on 30 October 2007.
On Saturday 2 February at 8.35pm the Kitten Club in Cherwell Drive was raided by two thieves who took cash and jewellery and threatened four women. Four months later on Saturday 7 June at 10.30pm a gang armed with knives robbed this brothel again.
- Oxford Mail, 4 February 2008: "Robbers strike at massage parlour"
- Oxford Mail, 9 June 2008: "Robbers strike at brothel"
On 21 July 2008 the Kitten Club moved to Holyoake Road, and then to Lime Walk in September 2008. It moved again following a fire on 5 November 2008.
Venus Massage Parlour
This club operated at 230 Marston Road (near St Michael's Primary School) until it was raided by police at noon on Tuesday 8 April 2008 and closed down
- Oxford Mail, 9 April 2008: "Venus gets a surprise visit from cops"
Sasha and Friends
This brothel spent its last years in Summertown, where it had a lot of publicity in November 2007 as it was the first brothel to be raided in Oxford where human trafficking was involved.
It started life on the London Road in Headington, however, and was the victim of an armed robbery at the end of the year 2001.:
- Oxford Mail, 15 December 2001: "Call to force brothels out of housing areas"
- Oxford Mail, 13 December 2001: "Robbers jailed for parlour holdups"
- Oxford Mail, 12 December 2001: "Men guilty of shotgun robberies"
- Oxford Mail, 11 December 2001: "Jury considers parlour attacks"
- Oxford Mail, 7 December 2001: "Jury told of forensic clues"
- Oxford Mail, 6 December 2001: "Imitation shotgun found at address"
- Oxford Mail, 5 December 2001: "Robbers targeted massage parlours"
Brothels and the law
It is not illegal for someone to work as a single prostitute from her own home, or for a group of girls to rent a flat and take turns working one day each. Brothels where a number of girls work simultaneously, and streetwalking and kerb-crawling, however, are illegal.
Sex-trafficking is particular serious, and It is thought that almost 1,500 women are brought into the UK every year and forced into prostitution to pay off the traffickers.