Man given suspended sentence for renting out booths at pornographic cinema to prostitutes; sex workers say they are now at higher risk

Copenhagen prostitutes say they have been left out in the cold and victimised after a court ruled against a pornographic cinema that rented video booths out to sex workers to conduct their business.

Copenhagen City Court gave the 67-year-old operator of the porn cinema on Istedgade Street a six month suspended sentence on Friday for renting his premises out to prostitutes.

The video booths had been rented to the prostitutes for 90 kroner for 45 minutes over the last number of years. The defendant was also ordered to hand over the earnings obtained from the rental which were estimated at 3.3 million kroner over a five year period.

The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charges and is now appealing his ruling to the High Court.

The sex workers’ interest organisation SIO said prostitutes had been victimised as the only group in society that did not have the right to rent premises.

‘The ruling is tragic for the sex workers who operate on Istedgade and who now can no longer work indoors. Their safety is at risk when they have to go with customers to places they are not familiar with,’ said SIO spokeswoman Susanne Møller in a press statement.

Møller said the authorities had been running a witch hunt against sex workers and by utilising arcane laws had ‘wrested them from the last place where they could rent a measly space under fairly safe conditions.’

‘Now the politicians have made sure that there are only cars and back yards left,’ Møller said.