Alex Bryce, Manager of National Ugly Mugs (NUM), gives a brilliant and powerful interview, marking the pioneering scheme’s one year anniversary. He talks about NUM, the successes so far and the plans for the future, he gives his thoughts on the Merseyside hate crime model, and he shares personal experiences of dealing with the police when as a teenager he was sexually and physically assaulted, and more recently when he and his partner were wrongfully arrested and assaulted.
How do you feel about the police?
Well, not long before becoming the manager of the National Ugly Mugs (NUM) Scheme I had a particularly bad experience with the police. My partner and I were wrongfully arrested, assaulted and then maliciously prosecuted. Until the CCTV footage was produced at the very last minute (the day of our trial), which completely confirmed our account of events and proved the police officers’ to be largely fabricated, we were faced with the prospect of it being our word against theirs in court – a particularly daunting position to be in. Thankfully, this has been resolved now but it did have a huge impact on our lives and certainly gave me an insight into how difficult it can be fighting the system. If anything, this made me more determined than ever to support sex workers in accessing the criminal justice system.
It might be…
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Soul Destruction 