11 hours ago
Sex for Sale: Secret deal that kept saunas open for business
A police crackdown on saunas in Edinburgh was foiled after a lawyer uncovered a 27 year old secret deal giving owners immunity from prosecution
In 2013 the newly appointed Chief Constable of Police Scotland Sir Stephen House launched a crackdown on sauna and massage parlour operators across the country.
Sir Stephen had long believed - not without justification - that they were fronts for money laundering and criminality and needed to be closed. In particular he wanted to target Edinburgh's controversial sex for sale industry believing a blind eye had been turned by his predecessors over the years.
In reality his suspicious on that particular front were well founded - but not in the way that he thought. Sir Stephen targeted Edinburgh saunas within weeks of the country's new single force being introduced in April 2013. The initiative was even given a name Operation Windermere.
In a series of high profile raids more than a dozen premises across Edinburgh were targeted resulting in their closure with a number of people charged with brothel keeping and living off immoral earnings. City saunas caught in the crackdown included including Scorpio Leisure in Albion Street, the Ambassador Sauna in Lothian Road, Carol's Sauna in Easter Road; Paradise Sauna in Roseburn Terace and premises in Blair Street and Dundas Street.
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However despite its best intentions Sir Stephen's crackdown foundered in the courts. Criminal charges against 11 people collapsed after it emerged - unbeknown to Mr House - that the sale of sex had effectively been legal in Edinburgh since 1986. A secret agreement had been signed by politicians, police and a senior Crown Office official that year amid fears the city would be devastated by an Aids epidemic.
The rate of HIV infection among heroin addicts in the city had soared and many female users sold sex to feed their habit. The capital had become known as having the highest population of Aids sufferers in the United Kingdom. It was estimated around half of its' 2000 heroin users had the HIV virus. The epidemic had spread through the multiple use of injecting equipment - shared by up to 20 addicts at a time.
As a result it was agreed saunas could have prostitutes on the premises and operate on the basis that they promoted safe sex and supplied condoms. The existence of the deal was revealed after one of the older sauna owners targeted in the 2013 crackdown asked his lawyers to check on the existence of the policy which he remembered from the 1980's.
As a result, the decision was taken to drop all charges against the 11 men and women. Police Scotland's high-profile Operation Windermere had come to an embarrassing halt. The lawyer responsible for identifying the loophole was veteran solicitor 72-year-old Vincent Belmonte. He represented several saunas facing brothel-keeping charges as a result of the police raids.
Belmonte discovered a deal had in fact been struck between owners, council bosses, police and prosecutors. He then discovered that the man who had signed it on behalf of the Crown Office - Kenneth McIver - was not only still alive but now a Sheriff.
In an interview in 2016 with our sister paper the Sunday Mail l Belmonte said: "I was absolutely certain there was a policy and just needed to prove it. "The saunas were trading legally in my eyes as a lawyer.
"I asked all the agencies to send me records of their meetings which had set up the policy. "None of them cooperated. I then wrote asking to take statements from the people involved in the policy, one of whom was Sheriff McIver. "I was then told discreetly not to bother preparing for the case as it wasn't going ahead.
"The Crown Office clearly didn't have any idea that the policy existed and had never been rescinded. "I knew then the Crown were in difficulties, so I wasn't surprised the case was dropped." Sheriff McIver had helped formulate the agreement in 1986 while working as a senior depute fiscal in the Crown Office.
Though McIver declined to speak to Belmonte, the lawyer then wrote to the Crown Office to tell them about the policy and McIver's role.
Officials interviewed McIver who confirmed the existence of the policy. When Belmonte and other lawyers turned up at Edinburgh Sheriff Court for trial in November 2015, they were told that all charges were dropped and the case was not going ahead. Brothel-keeping and prostitution charges against other bosses were also ditched.
Belmonte said that the police should have made more checks in June 2013 before they raided the city's saunas and tried to close them down. Many of them had their licences suspended following the raids. However most were able to remain open after lodging appeals.
In 2014 Edinburgh City Council decided to stop granting saunas public entertainment licences which had been introduced in number of saunas dropped after the raids and the council move. A smaller number now operate.
During the 1980's former criminal lawyer James McIntyre represented the owner of a sauna in Torphichen Place, Edinburgh, which was directly across the road from one of Edinburgh's biggest and busiest police stations. During that time his clients premises were never raided once and was aware that the police turned a blind one to what was allegedly going on inside.
In fact the client was so confident there would be no raid that he would often hold business meetings in an office in the sauna premises - including consultations with his lawyer.
James told the Daily Record:"My client's sauna was literally facing the police station. "I wasn't aware of any agreement then but I was very aware that nothing ever happenned.
"There was never any question in my mind that these places would get raided. "At that time there was almost one on every street in Edinburgh. "To me the saunas kept girls safe rather than standing on the corners of somewhere like Glasgow Green where anything can happen to them."
