Ban for 'persistent prostitute'

Police say prostitution is a huge problem in Middlesbrough

Police on Teesside have won a court order banning a town's most persistent prostitute from her red light patch.

Teesside Magistrates Court heard that 33-year-old Bernadette Isherwood propositioned churchgoers and taxi drivers in Middlesbrough.

Vice Squad officer Sergeant Caroline Walls voted her the prostitute who was the biggest nuisance among the town's 150 street girls.

Cleveland Police have now won an anti-social behaviour order banning her for three years from the town centre except between 1000 BST and 1200 BST and for visits to her doctor, dentist and probation officer.

The application, under the Crime and Disorder Act, claimed her behaviour was likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

The court heard heroin addict Ms Isherwood had nine convictions in six months for loitering on the same stretch of Middlesbrough's Borough Road.

'night time thing'

If she fails to head the ban Ms Isherwood risks a maximum five year jail sentence or £5,000 fine.

Inspector Gary Gamesby, head of Cleveland Police vice unit, said after the hearing: "She is number one on our list of persistent prostitutes and we plan to seek similar orders on others."

District judge James Prowse said: "Prostitution is a 24-hour operation in Middlesbrough, unlike other towns and cities where it is a night time thing.

"It is not just confined to one area, it is spread right across the centre of the town and it has invaded the residential areas.

"If the order is going to work it is going to work in three years, she'll be out of the area , off the drugs or she'll be back in court."