Gang rape warning issued for St. John's sex workers

An outreach group has issued a "red alert" to sex-trade workers in the St. John's area after reports ofrecent sexual assaults, including gang rape and sodomy.

The St. John's Status of Women Council says it's concerned that a sex worker may getkilled.

The warning was sentthrough theSafe Harbour Outreach Project'sTwitter account, @sexworkoutreach, late Thursday afternoon.

The project is a new program thatsupports women in the sex trade in St. John's and surrounding areas.

The warning says, "Sex workers are contacted, then they are transported to a hotel under the understanding that they will be meeting one man for work."

If you took the word sex worker out of this report and you heard that there are mass sexual assaults happening in our community, people would be absolutely devastated.Jenny Wright, executive director of St. John's Status of Women Council

According to the outreach group, when a woman arrives at a hotel door, she is "forced into a hotel room where there are several men waiting. Some reports have stated 12 men, other reports have been as high as 20."

Jenny Wright, the executive director of the St. John's Status of Women Council, which operates the outreach project, said it's one of the scariest threats to sex workers she's heard of in the area.

"Sexual assaults of this kind are absolutely horrific. A woman could be killed from this kind of assault," said Wright.

Fear of reporting assaults

Wright said she's concerned the workers will be unable to get followup care because they're scared to come forward to police about an assault.

"There's a great deal of fear coming forward for sex workers,there's a lot of stigma," she said. "They're continually victim-blamed for it. 'Well, if you weren't there, this wouldn't have happened,' and this is a huge problem for those in the sex trade, because nobody deserves this kind of assault there is absolutely no justification."

She added there's worry that more incidents of gang rape have occurred, but the sex worker involved was too afraid to come forward.

"If you took the word sex worker out of this report and you heard that there are mass sexual assaults happening in our community, people would be absolutely devastated."

No official complaints filed

Meanwhile, the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary says it was only made aware of the assaults through the warning issued Thursday evening, and there have been no official complaints.

Const. Steve Curnew said the RNC will be making the incidents their top priorityand aren't interested in pursuing charges related to the sex work itself in this case.

"We're not interested in prosecuting anything on that [the sex worker] side,we're more interested in protecting these workers in the industry," said Curnew.

"We want to protect them and provide them some safety,so for them to come forward is going to help with that."

The project said it is believed the men are associated with, or working for, a major construction project in the province.

The CBC Investigates unit has done extensive work on the surge of sex workers travelling to, and working in, Newfoundland and Labrador. The increase is linked to the recent economic boom.

One source familiar with the sex trade said this type of attack is a first for the province.