This is The Drag – a handful of streets in Glasgow city centre which made up the red-light district in the 1990s and early 2000s. We make a visit with an experienced local crime reporter asking what life would have been like for the women who stood there on cold, dark nights all those years ago? Waiting to be picked up by one of the circling drivers, not knowing how the encounter might end. Heroin culture was still ravaging the city – pushing some women involved in prostitution into perilous liaisons to feed their habit. We hear from a charity worker who gave her time and care to many of these women, facing down threats of violence to protect them from predators. She tells us of the fear and pain this nighttime community went through as more and more women involved in prostitution were murdered. Eight women killed in less than 15 years. We want to visit The Drag in person to see what it’s like now and find out what are police doing to crack down on on-street prostitution? We join officers on patrol, who lift men for kerb-crawling – an offence now punishable by law in Scotland. We also hear from someone who lives on Glasgow’s streets who paints a vivid picture of the fear, addiction and violence that still blights the area now.

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If you’ve been affected by any of the issues raised in this podcast and need mental-health support or want to talk about your feelings, visit the Hub of Hope to find services in your area.

If you think you might have information about any of the people we’ve mentioned you can get in touch with us at bewarebook@bauermedia.co.uk

Written, created, presented and produced by Collette McGonigle

Presented and produced by Callum McQuade

Executive Producers - Laurence Bassett & Henrietta Harrison

Sound Design - James Stodd & Michelle Homan

Designer - Ben Watkins

Production Manager - Sarah Nicholls

Legal Counsel - Jonathan McNaul for Bauer Media Group and Caroline Marshall for Reviewed & Cleared

Head of Production - Cat Moran

Chief Creative Officer, Podcasts - Lucie Cave

Director of News and Sport, Scotland and Northern Ireland - Lorraine Herbison Hollinshead

Beware Book is a Rayo Original podcast by Bauer Media