Sex workers reveal abuses

Sex worker Winnie began selecting her clients more carefully after she was severely bitten by a customer who forced her to provide services she did not want to supply one night last year.

The thirtysomething, who has been hosting clients at her Sheung Shui flat for more than five years, still feels scared when she recalls the nightmarish experience.

'Everything was normal at the beginning. The man suddenly covered my mouth with one hand and pressed both my hands against the bed with the other. Then he began to bite my shoulders, waist and breasts. I struggled and cried, yet I could not make a sound,' she said.

The man, in his twenties, then forced her to have anal sex. After a desperate struggle, Winnie freed herself and rushed to the bathroom, where she locked herself in and called police. The man was arrested and ended up spending time in jail.

'If I had just let him go, it was very likely that he would do the same thing to others,' she said.

Winnie is among the very few sex workers who dare report to police when they have 'bad clients'.

A recent survey on the safety of female sex workers in Hong Kong found that of 113 respondents, 15 had been subjected to violence by clients, yet only two had called the police.