He says sex work has always been connected to Manchester gay and cruising scenes and was concentrated around Canal Street, the Undercroft and Tariff Street although that has changed. Pullen, Christopher; Cooper, Margaret (4 June 2010). LGBT Identity and Online New Media. Routledge. p.293. ISBN 978-1-136-99753-2. While they would previously have met men working on the streets to offer advice face to face, they now reach out through instant messaging apps like Whatsapp. I’ve had people say ‘If I fancy him I won’t charge him’. That’s the reality for a young, out, gay sex worker. Some even see sex work almost as a right of passage.

Under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, it is an offence to cause or incite prostitution or control it for personal gain. MASH, which supports sex workers across the city, helped 350 women last year. Over the last six months, the charity’s homelessness worker has managed to support 14 women in getting off the street and into housing. Though some of the women are rough sleepers many sofa surf, stay with punters or remain in abusive relationships.

Then there is ‘survival sex’. That’s more the young homeless lad out of prison, or highly addicted, who identifies as straight. They hate it and they hate themselves for doing it but it’s a way of making money. They will likely do a bit of burglary, some drug dealing and a bit of sex work too.”

He says: “We recently supported a lad who was persuaded to meet up with a client, they became obsessed with him, started calling him 20 times a day and then threatened to send the pictures to a close relative.

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It’s something that DC Nield agrees with: “We would love to get more intelligence that allows us to help male sex workers but we just don’t get any,” he says.