Meet 91-year-old commercial sex worker who still attracts customers

Birmingham: A study has revealed a 91-year-old escort currently working in the UK sex industry.

Research conducted by the Universities of Birmingham and Lancaster found the details of the individual among those of 27,000 sex workers in an online directory.

Their research paints a “surprising picture” of the UK sex industry - revealing it is now dominated by escorts working for female clients, reports the Birmingham Mail.

The 27,000 sex workers were aged between 18 and 91.

Around two thirds of the database were male escorts advertising to women clients, while around one in three sex workers were either male, transexual or transgender.

Meanwhile, the study also showed women are less willing to splash their cash when it comes to sex, with male escorts charging lower rates than female colleagues.

The researchers are now calling for an urgent “reframing of political debates” around the sex industry, moving away from the stereotypes that sex workers are “victimised women” and their clients are “predatory men”.

Dr Nicola Smith, senior lecturer in political science at the University of Birmingham, said: “These figures underscore the need to challenge dominant prejudices about sex workers and their clients, which mask the complex reality of the sex industry today.

“Debates about commercial sex need to move beyond outdated stereotypes that women are sex objects and men are sex predators – desire takes many forms, and the sex industry is no exception to this.”

Dr Sarah Kingston, lecturer in criminology at Lancaster University, said there needed to be more debate over ‘The End’ campaign, which is calling on the UK Government to follow the Swedish model of criminalising the purchase but not the sale of sex.

She added: “The campaign is premised on the idea that only women sell to men and is based upon research which is over a decade old.

"These recent figures clearly challenge these narrow-minded assumptions and demonstrate the complex and multi-faceted nature of the sex industry.”