Online prostitution ‘soaring’ here

Online prostitution is soaring as sex buyers from Northern Ireland head south to avoid new laws.

The Immigrant Council of Ireland published figures yesterday showing five months after Stormont’s sex buyer laws came into force, online prostitution levels are now 240% higher in southern border areas than in the North. The figures also reveal the number of women selling sexual services in Cork is now higher than in all of Northern Ireland.

The Stormont Assembly passed the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Bill in June, which included a clause making paying for sex a criminal offence.