Ellena Cruse. Police talking to a sex worker on Ilford Lane. Picture: Ellena Cruse. But as soon as she put away pictures of her cherubic son, with tufts of brown curls, her face transformed into a blank canvas - despite the layers of lipstick and foundation.
I was standing in a harshly lit alley way on the border of Barking and Ilford, sharing toddler stories with a sex worker. The police have invited me on a night shift with them as they tackle antisocial behaviour, including prostitution.
As we inspected a side road on foot we caught a women and a man engaged in a sexual act behind a wheelie bin and as officers approach she hastily pulled up her jeans.
There are no jobs, this is what we do. After handing the pair a antisocial behaviour order, banning them from the area for 48 hours, he said the majority of women come from Romania. We bump into a few more Romanian women who speak of disliking their profession but need to provide for their children- often after relationships break down.
The sex workers often give the same addresses or hotels as places of residence and officers said they will be checking out premises in Barking and Ilford as a result. However there are handlers, and some of the girls get picked up at the end of the night and dropped off.
