Sex in the suburbs: Lifting the lid on a secret world

Hundreds of women and men across the West Midlands are selling sex over the internet – and today the Express & Star begins a week-long investigation into the sex industry in the 21st century.

Reporters have found hundreds of cases of people offering to meet customers for sex on a website that works in the same way as eBay, although the two have no connection whatsoever.

The sex for sale industry has never been busier, with a depressing influx of young Eastern European girls joining the ranks of prostitutes in our area.

In the age of the internet and the throwaway mobile phone, finding these women - and sometimes men - has never been easier.

They're operating from rented flats, nondescript houses and cheap hotels, offering their services for as little as £30.

Some of the new arrivals barely speak English and who knows what new life they thought they were stepping into when they set out for British shores?

Others are Black Country born and bred or Staffordshire girls, promoting themselves as '100 per cent English' and charging a premium rate as a result.

Many claim to be students, but our undercover reporters saw litle sign of course work in dingy rooms reeking of drugs.

All are putting their lives and health on the line to satisfy 'clients' who have never found sex for sale so easy.

As children pass by and families go about their business, what is going on behind the curtains of these seemingly normal homes?

From the brothels to the bedroom, from the woods to the clubs, the Express & Star has been behind closed doors into the secret world of sex in the West Midlands.

Every day this week, we investigate how the oldest trade in the world has changed in the 21st century and talk to the people who pay for it – as well as those who offer their bodies for cold cash.

It is not our intention to be sordid or salacious.

We will spare you the explicit details and we are not aiming to 'expose' (for want of a better word) those caught up in this seedy trade; in the vast majority of cases they are victims, of one sort or another.

But they are hidden in plain sight, easily accessible at the touch of a button on the internet.

Britain today has a very different attitude towards sex than that which many people would have experienced even a decade or two ago.

The internet is a wild frontier that has replaced the top shelf magazines and cards displayed in phone boxes with an 'anything goes' culture.

Our intention over a series of reports this week is not to promote, condone or condemn, but rather to show readers what is happening – often not far from their homes.

Recent court cases have revealed sex being sold above shops and upmarket restaurants.

On one website alone, more than 1,500 people offer sex for sale in Wolverhampton, Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall, Stafford, Cannock - almost in any town, city or village you care to name.

In addition, beauty spots such as Cannock Chase change at night to become meeting places for illicit encounters and lapdancing clubs report a surge in trade, leading to longer opening hours.

Even online dating, once just a simple way of meeting someone for a meal or a drink, has its spin-offs where married couples go searching for a new partner with whom to have an affair.

Incredibly, most of what we have found is legal.

But it provokes urgent questions over whether the law should change.

It may no longer be a tool of the trade, but one thing is for certain – red light still spells danger.