City's red light zone under fresh scrutiny

The disappearance of three Bradford prostitutes from the red light district is not the first time the city's sex industry has come under the national spotlight.

Thirty-three years ago, the Yorkshire Ripper struck for the first time in his home city - killing prostitute Patricia Atkinson in a flat just streets away from the home of suspected murder victim Susan Rushworth.

Fast-forward to the mid-1990s and the area was highlighted yet again, albeit this time in fiction, with the screening of television drama series Band of Gold - featuring the lives of a group of women who lived and worked the city's red light district.

And in 2001, 19-year-old prostitute Rebecca Hall was found murdered and dumped in an alleyway behind a car park in Thornton Street. Her killer has never been found.

Now those who live and work here are trying to come to terms with the news that, yet again, the place will be the focus of national scrutiny for its links with vice.

The area, just north of Bradford's city centre, remains run-down and grimy, despite numerous operations to try to clear up the problems of drugs, crime and prostitution.

The streets where Ms Rushworth, Shelly Armitage and Suzanne Blamires worked contain a mixture of commercial and residential properties - many abandoned and boarded-up.

Those living in the area complain about sex workers conducting their business outside their homes and leaving used condoms and needles strewn around the area.

One man, who runs a business in the area and did not want to be named, said there were few problems in the daytime but that things changed after dark.

He said: "We often open up in the morning and there are used condoms and syringes lying around.

"I sometimes have to work into the evening and I've took to telling blokes who are kerb-crawling outside to move on somewhere else.

"It's not just the girls, who clearly all have drugs and alcohol problems, it's what they bring with them - the drug dealers and everything."

West Yorkshire Police have carried out many operations over the past 10 years to try to help solve the problems: one crackdown saw kerb-crawlers sent letters warning them they had been spotted trawling the streets, another saw them banned from loitering in the area bounded by City Road, St Michael Street and White Abbey Road.

But recent events suggest that prostitution and its associated problems is as much an issue now as it was during the Ripper's killing spree.

Peter Sutcliffe - now known as Peter Coonan - had been killing for two years when he targeted Ms Atkinson, 32, in Bradford in 1977, picking her up in the red light district before murdering her in her flat on Oak Lane.

Early the next year, he struck in Bradford again - this time murdering 21-year-old prostitute Yvonne Pearson after she got in his car as he cruised the red light district.

Timeline

Events surrounding the disappearances of the women:

• Monday, June 22, 2009

11.30 a.m. - Susan Rushworth, 43, is seen getting on to a single decker bus, near to the Tyke Public House, on Thornton Road, Bradford, West Yorkshire.

12 p.m. - The last confirmed sighting of Ms Rushworth in the Manningham area, near to her flat on Oak Villas, after getting off the bus.

The mother-of-three, who suffers from epilepsy and is getting treatment for a heroin addiction, does not contact her family or use her phone again.

• Monday, July 6, 2009

Ms Rushworth's 23-year-old son James makes a public appeal for information about his mother's disappearance.

At a West Yorkshire Police news conference Mr Rushworth says his mother had no reason to go missing and urges people to get in touch. He says his close family are not coping well.

• Monday, July 20, 2009

Police make a fresh appeal for information, a month after Ms Rushworth's disappearance and outline three main areas of concern.

Detective chief inspector Jon Hoyle says: "That we believe

Sue was trying to get hold of drugs on the day she went missing; that Sue was working as a sex worker and that Sue suffered from epilepsy and we do not believe she had medication with her."

• Saturday, August 22, 2009:

Police say they are growing increasingly concerned about Ms Rushworth two months after she disappears.

• Tuesday, September 22, 2009:

Police make another appeal for information about Ms Rushworth to mark the three-month anniversary of her disappearance.

• Monday, April 26, 2010:

7p.m. - Shelley Armitage, 31, leaves her flat on Bentcliffe Walk, Allerton, with a friend and has food on City Road before moving towards Sunbridge Road and Rebecca Street.

10 p.m. to the early hours of Tuesday morning - Ms Armitage is last seen in Rebecca Street, in Bradford city centre.

• Wednesday, April 28, 2010:

Ms Armitage is reported missing to police.

• Wednesday, May 5, 2010:

Police launch a poster appeal to help trace Ms Armitage. The poster states police are extremely concerned for her safety.

• Monday May 10, 2010:

Police release CCTV footage showing Ms Armitage walking a short way along a street in Bradford before turning round an retracing her steps at around 10.10 p.m. on April 26. Officers say detailed searches of Bell Dean Road, in Bradford, have been conducted for clues to the 31-year-old's disappearance. Inquiries have also taken place in Huddersfield, where Ms Armitage worked the year before. Detectives say Ms Armitage, who has health issues with drink and drugs, has failed to claim her benefits or use her mobile phone since her disappearance.

• Friday May 21 2010:

Suzanne Blamires, 36, from Allerton, Bradford, disappears in the city.

• Monday, May 24, 2010:

A 40-year-old man is arrested in connection with Ms Blamires' disappearance.

• Wednesday, May 26, 2010:

Police reveal the 40-year-old man is being questioned on suspicion of murdering Ms Blamires, Ms Rushworth and Ms Armitage.

Detectives are granted more time to question the suspect until yesterday evening.

• Thursday, May 27, 2010

Body parts found in a river were confirmed as belonging to missing prostitute Suzanne Blamires.