Outlawing the buying of sex: survivor of prostitution and trafficking tells her story to MSPs

Diane Martin will tell the Scottish Parliament's justice committee how she was exploited through "supposed high class" prostitution in London and then trafficked overseas.

She supports the "Nordic model" of tackling prostitution, which is the basis of the Bill put forward by Ms Regan, Alba MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, which would decriminalise the selling of sex and criminalise its purchase.

Diane Martin is backing Ash Regan’s Bill to make the buying of sex a criminal offence

Ahead of today's evidence session, Ms Martin told the Evening News' sister paper The Scotsman: "This is a great opportunity for me to come and speak on this because I have multiple vantage points as a survivor of prostitution in London who was then trafficked into a prostitution ring in the Middle East, and as someone who for the last 30 years has been supporting women to exit.

"We keep waiting for these issues to be addressed while people are being exploited and experiencing trauma and violence."

Ms Martin, who now works to help other women out of prostitution, rejected the arguments of sex workers who are opposed to the Bill. She said: "Policy cannot be based on individual experiences and a handful of people who say they are empowered and independent sex workers.

"We need to look at the vast, overwhelming majority of women who are trafficked in from other countries and those from the UK who have been chewed up and spat out by a number of different systems. It is 2025 and I am astonished that we are still having this conversation."

At the weekend, Ms Regan released the results of new polling which showed an overwhelming majority of people in Scotland backed tougher laws to criminalise sex buyers.

In the survey by pollsters FindOutNow, 68 per cent of Scots said they supported stronger laws against buying sex as a way of tackling pimping, organised crime and sex trafficking in Scotland. Only 7 per cent were opposed, with 25 per cent neither supporting or opposing.

Ms Regan said: “Prostitution is a form of violence against women. That’s not just my personal opinion, it is the view of the Scottish Government and COSLA. The proposals in my Unbuyable Bill are already the policy of the governing party and polling continues to show us that a clear majority backs my Unbuyable Bill, which shifts the shame and criminality from those exploited in prostitution onto the sex buyers who exploit them.

“Therefore it is welcome that the public agree that stronger laws are needed to tackle pimps, address human trafficking and organised crime. These are the people that sex buyers fund at the expense of inflicting violence on women.

"Commercial sexual exploitation of vulnerable, mainly women and girls, should never be about party politics. Polling shows support from voters of every main political party, sending a powerful message: Scots across the political spectrum want an end to the buying of women’s bodies and they expect Parliament to act."