Murders hit Hong Kong's vulnerable 'one-woman brothels'

A report by the group Action for Reach Out, based on a survey of 113 Hong Kong sex workers from March 2006 to March 2007, found that 41 percent said customers have forced them to have sex without condoms. Another 18.6 percent ran into customers who refused to pay, and 13.3 percent said customers were violent.

The gory details of the three murders in January, along with an earlier one in November, captivated the media and public. They followed four similar killings in March last year, including one in which the victim was strangled with a shower hose.

“New killer appears, anxiety spreads among phoenix sisters,” blared a headline in the Ming Pao Daily News, a respected Chinese language newspaper.

The most recent victims included a 43-year-old divorced mother and a 47-year-old woman, reportedly found naked with a silk scarf tied around her neck. All eight victims worked alone out of rented apartments, known locally as “one room, one phoenix.”

Activists want the government to allow prostitutes to work together in small groups, in effect legalizing brothels. But any such move promises to be politically sensitive in a city where many hold conservative social values.

“Most people may not accept it. Traditional Chinese society views sex work as immoral,” said 52-year-old driver Ho Kwok-pun. He said he supports legalization: “This way we can protect them.”

Even if the government isn't budging, police were quick to make an arrest. Officers, with media in tow, made an unusually public visit to one of the crime scenes with a 24-year-old suspect. Live footage showed the man, charged with two of the January murders, walking with a hood over his head into a dark, narrow stairwell next to a shuttered storefront.

Meanwhile, activists are helping sex workers pay for safety alarms and surveillance cameras. Prostitutes say they are checking on each other more regularly.

“Why do we keep working? Because we need to eat. We need to support our children,” a prostitute who would only give her name as Mimi said at a news conference organized by Zi Teng. She wore a blue hat and a white handkerchief over her mouth to conceal her identity. “We need to support our children ... sex work is a profession.”

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