I was a prostitute in Edinburgh who always feared I'd be murdered and now I describe myself as a survivor

Fiona Broadfoot, who describes herself as a sex trade survivor, now runs the Build a Girl project, a survivor-led social enterprise working with young women at risk of, or experiencing, sexual exploitation.

And she is supporting Edinburgh Eastern MSP Ash Regan's bid to change the law in Scotland to make buying sex a criminal offence punishable by a fine or imprisonment.

Fiona Broadfoot spoke first hand of the horrors of prostitution | TSPL

Speaking at the launch of Ms Regan's Prostitution (Offences and Support) (Scotland) Bill, Ms Broadfoot said: "I entered the sex industry when I was 15 years of age, trafficked from my home town to London, I spent 11 years entrenched in the life.

“Every day I thought I was going to be murdered, every day I experienced rape by ordinary men whose lives were not impacted for one second like the women and girls they used. It was many, many years ago, but the impact is lifelong."

And she continued: "I was a prostitute in a brothel in Edinburgh that had an entertainments licence.

"Men came in and out on their lunch hours, their dinner hours, on their way home to their families. I don't suppose it was ever a topic of conversation around the dinner table. They were secret, hidden men and there are thousands and thousands of them.

“I can’t even begin to think of the number of men who bought my body and used it for their own sexual gratification.

"Men's lives are not impacted. We have to bring them into the public eye and hold them accountable for what they are doing."

The Bill aims to reduce prostitution in Scotland by criminalising the purchase of sexual acts whie decriminalising those who sell them. And it would establish a statutory right to support for individuals involved in prostitution to help them to leave the industry by ensuring housing, financial aid, counselling and health care.

Ms Broadfoot said many of the women she worked alongside in Edinburgh 30 years ago had been trafficked.

She said: "We all stayed in the same bed and breakfast and there were women from Malaysia, Thailand, the UK and other places.

"We were treated like animals. We had to put the customer first and forget what we were made to feel like. And this was licensed by Edinburgh City Council - but I was there for 18 months and no-one ever came to check on us."

And she said: "None of the men were dirty old men in raincoats - they were teachers, doctors, lawyers, no doubt politicians and police officers, and they knew they could do exactly what they wanted with no accountability. We were the ones left feeling like pieces of meat at the end of the day."

Ms Regan, who was elected as an SNP MSP but later defected to Alba, said prostitution was an issue that had been ignored for too long. "It's something that's often kept in the shadows, something that the public and politicians don't really want to think about. It's well past time that we did look at it properly. This is modern slavery that's being carried out in Scotland."

Edinburgh Eastern MSP Ash Regan's Bill would criminalise the purchase of sexual acts. Picture: Getty Images. | Getty Images

She said although there were existing laws against kerb-crawling, about 90 per cent of prostitution in Scotland had now moved indoors, so the law needed to be updated.

"Very few women are now arrested for prostitution offences, I want to go a lot further, decriminalise the women altogether and then expunge any criminal record they have to do with prostitution."

She said there was time for the Bill to get through the Scottish Parliament before next year's elections. Previous attempts to make similar changes to the law had failed to attract the required cross-party support to progress.

"The first gauge I have of interest in this by colleagues is the fact that I received that cross-party support within two days and exceeded the target of 18 - I got 25."

She said there were an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 women involved in prostitution in Scotland "We have to assume that many of them are going to be trafficked. The top countries are places like Vietnam, Nigeria and Eastern Europe.

"Many of them have to be coerced to take part in this, have no real idea of what they're getting into, don't speak the language and have had their documents and passports taken away from them.

"As this debate goes on, we need to remember that the voices which suggest prostitution is empowering or a career choice, they are not the real face of this industry.

“The real face of this industry is an under-age girl from Eastern Europe or Nigeria who does not want to be there and is being horribly abused and some studies show that when she comes out of that - and the average time in the industry is seven years - she will have PTSD at a higher rate than combat veterans."