Residents’ Action Gets Remuera Brothel Booted Out

Family First NZ is welcoming news that the residents in Remuera’s Ascot Ave near the Prime Minister’s residence have succeeded in getting rid of a residential brothel through community pressure. 

“It is disappointing that politicians have foisted a flawed prostitution law on families with the result of brothels setting up right next door to family homes – yet it has to take the determination and persistence of families to try and remedy this unacceptable situation,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ. 

“We have huge sympathy for the families in this neighbourhood – but they are not the first, and won’t be the last to be harmed until the politicians admit they made a mistake.” “Accounts of home brothels where men willing to pay for sex are knocking on nearby homes trying to find the brothel, and concerns about noise, traffic, and late-night visits experienced by residents is unfortunately nothing new to many residential streets around New Zealand experiencing having a brothel in their residential street.” 

“It is a national disgrace that we are exposing our children and families to that level of risk.” 

“The opposition to residential brothels in places such as Remuera, Greenlane, Albany, North Shore, Mt Victoria in Wellington, Christchurch, opposite a school in Henderson, attempts by Manukau City Council to tackle the problems of street prostitution in Papatoetoe and Manurewa, and opposition to the brothel in the main street of Dannevirke and Invercargill all show that communities are not accepting the liberalised and harmful laws.” 

“The decriminalisation of prostitution has been a community disaster harming families, businesses, and the welfare of workers caught in the industry. Cities throughout NZ have been trying to deal with the ‘hospital pass’ given by the politicians when they passed this law,” says Mr McCoskrie.

 “Rather than families having to battle this alone, they should have the support of laws that work and that protect them. It’s time the politicians delivered that law.”

ENDS

The concept of the ”moral welfare” or “moral well-being” of children and young persons is well-documented in case law, as is the nature of activities that when promoted or supported (AND even when there is a tendency to promotion or support), are “likely to be injurious to the public good” or ”likely to [put] in jeopardy” the “moral welfare” of  members of the public, including vulnerable children and young persons (see below).

It is the ever-present threat of “likely” harm and injury (mental, physical and moral) and their far-reaching negative inter-generational consequences, as well as the accepted Judaeo-Christian belief in human dignity (“Man made in the image of God” – often not acknowledged), that have undoubtedly undergirded successive governmental decisions (driven perhaps in part by quickened consciences and pragmatism) to enact child protection and censorship laws to safeguard our precious children and young persons from the dangers of exposure to child abuse, family violence, depiction of gratuitous violence and inappropriate sexual content in the media and exposure to morally corrupting hardcore pornography etc.

In the New Zealand censorship laws a publication is deemed to be “objectionable” and thereby “likely to be injurious to the public good” if it promotes or supports, or tends to promote of support” six listed activities, including the exploitation of children for sexual purposes, necrophilia and bestiality. The “moral welfare” of children is clearly put in jeopardy when they are given access to publications containing such content. Adults cannot even view such banned material lawfully, with the exception of censorship officials.

Government has empowered the NZ Police, NZ Customs officers, the Courts, the Office of Film and Literature Classification, The Film and Literature Board of Review, the Censorship Compliance Unit of the Department of Internal Affairs and other enforcement agencies to ensure that censorship laws are enforced.

Child Youth and Family (NZ) acknowledge that the concept of “moral well-being” undergirded earlier legislation:

“The Child Welfare Act 1925 … was the first codification of child welfare as a professional activity. The legal grounds for intervention in the lives of families were: indigence (no person accepting responsibility for the child); neglect by parents; living in an environment detrimental to a child’s physical or moral well-being; not being under proper control; and delinquency. These differ somewhat from the modern emphasis on causation of harm to children as a result of physical, emotional or sexual abuse and maltreatment by reasons of neglect or deprivation. These earlier grounds shaped not only formal complaints heard by a Children’s Court, but also the informal work of the Child Welfare agency.” [Emphasis added - see ref. 1]

The “moral welfare” of children who live in close proximity (i.e. in a domestic setting) with those using their homes as a place of prostitution, even though making a living from prostitution is no longer unlawful, is clearly put jeopardy. Child, Youth and Family Services will intervene to remove such children from their ‘care-givers’ when they are alerted to such dangers.

If a child was allowed by her mother or mother to accompany her/him each time she/he went soliciting for sex on the streets and it came to the attention of the NZ Police, they would be required to intervene and ensure the safety of the child.

The concept of the “promotion” of “moral welfare” has a long history in the charitable sector within Western jurisdictions.  For example, society clearly has a vested interest in the long-term, fruitful and successful nature of marriages and recognises the harmful nature of acrimonious marriage breakdowns, infidelity, partner abuse etc. Its social and enforcement agencies have officers empowered in law to intervene and/or assist in order to promote “moral welfare” – strong family life and wholesome personal values as the foundation of stable communities. 

It is critical that non-government agencies and organisations promote the “moral welfare” of children and young persons and seek to have our government-appointed enforcement agencies supported and empowered to uphold “the public good” and prevent “”the likelihood of injury to the public good”.

Reference:

1. Care and protection: Capturing the essence of our practice

“Some history of New Zealand’s approach to child welfare

By Mike Doolan and Marie Connolly

http://ww.practicecentre.cyf.govt.nz

At present 66 domain names are listed with the above IP address, including Mr Carr’s personal website www.johnmcarr.com which curiously contains his ‘Curriculum Vitae’ - with its most recent entry dated 1 April 2006 recording his purchase of Brass Magazine NZ Ltd. However, over five years of his – no doubt prolific – business activities etc remain unnaccounted for!

The website “Profile” claims: “He has a 200 acre farm in rural New Zealand, running to the ocean and 11 miles of white sand beaches [sic] and is being developed as an agri-forestry venture.”  However, the Overseas Investment Office has been unable to trace any evidence for such an acquisition by him or the companies he directs or has directed.

His tax/book-keeping consultancy domain names: bbs.co.nz and bbstax.com are also at IP 198.211.217.131

Of interest to the Society are the number of domain names including Adult industry appellations such as: “NZXgirls”, “downunderescorts”, “hotkiwis” and “allaboutporn” that are also found at this same IP address and are hence owned by Mr John M Carr/Better Business Services, Inc. (John M Carr is principal and owner of BBS Inc).

The domain name “pacificalpacas.com” is also registered with Godaddy.com by John Carr’s Better Business Services and is found at at IP 198.211.217.131 as well as an apparently  defunct charity bbscharities.org which provides tax free status to all charitable contributions from US donors.

A defunct US charity website, an alpaca fibre ‘export’ website and porn stars/escorts downunder websites may seem very strange and bizarre bed-fellows, but such is the broad vision of  this investor. He has managed somehow to remain well under the radar while his hardcore porn business side-kick – now a banned company director – parades the ‘industry’ to the NZ public via “Boobs on Bikes” : pursuing personal titillation and profit (an advertised star of the forthcoming Boobs on Bikes/Erotica Lifestyles Expo is an import from John M Carr’s home city of San Antonio,  Texas).

Note:

John M Carr, President of Better Business Services, Inc. provides a  “TaxLogic Privacy Statement”

addressing a question frequently raised by prospective clients, namely:

“What personally identifiable information of mine is collected?”

His answer includes:

“Better Business Services Inc. / TaxLogic (“TaxLogic”) collects information from you upon registration…. we collect data in our log files. We collect your IP address, browser type, domain name, and we log the length of time of your visit and the number of times you visit and subscribe to our service.”

http://www.taxlogic.com/privacy.html

However, the NZ Herald report did not note the fact that the NZXescorts website domain name, first registered on  21 March 2011, was listed by Crow’s close business associate and company director Dermott Malley, as being owned by a defunct company – Truth Publications Ltd  - a company which was struck off the Register of companies one month earlier – on 25 February 2011.  It was actually put into liquidation on 21 October 2009 and the auditor’s report showed it owed over $600,000 to creditors.  The registrant’s email was incorrectly recorded as dermott@truth.co.nz - (A defunct email – no longer valid – which Crow’s associate Dermott Malley used while he was a director of the now failed company).

The Domain Name Commission (DNC) was alerted to these errors by an alert NZ Herald reader who copied his correspondence to to the Registrar of Companies, whose decision last year had led to Mr Crow being banned as a director for four years – effective from 16 April 2010 . 

Following notification of the errors, the DNC contacted Mr Dermott Malley and subsequently the registrant’s identity for NZXescorts was changed on 16 June 2011 to “Truth Weekender Limited”. In addition the registrant’s contact email was upgraded/corrected to dermott@truthweekender.co.nz (Dermott Malley, along with John Andrew Pin, is currently one of the two directors of Truth Weekender Limited.).

The association between “Porn King” Steve Crow and Truth Weekender Ltd, which owns the domain name of the NZXescorts business, is abundantly clear.

 The NZ Herald article points out that Mr Crow intends to use his forthcoming “Boobs on Bikes” Auckland event to promote the new on-line escort business. [This will assist Mr Malley and his co-director John Andrew Pin, to promote their NZXescorts agency that is supported through The Truth Weekender].

The NZXescorts website states that the business is “part owned by Truth Weekend Limited, Skin Magazine, NZX Magazine, Erotica Lifestyles Expo and Vixen Direct”.  The latter three hardcore porn businesses are closely asociated with banned company director Mr Steve Crow while the first two Adult ‘entertainment’ businesses are closely linked to Mr Dermott Malley.

The NZXescorts website states: “… the opportunity [for prostitutes] to advertise not just here but also in New Zealand’s only dedicated weekly adult entertainment guide Truth Weekender/Skin Magazine”.

The close business associations between banned director Steve Crow and Dermott Malley in the porn industry/escort agency industry is very transparent on the public record.

The sex industry “skinescorts” agency website is owned by Multimedia Solutions Limited – a company directed by Dermott Malley, Matthew Horton and John Andrew Pin (All three were directors of the now defunct company  Truth Publications Limited). Skin Magazine is part of Truth Weekender.

For details on Multimedia Solutions Ltd and company links see:

http://www.spcs.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/Diagrams/Truth-Publications-Ltd-Diagram.pdf

On Sunday 5 June the NZ Herald published a story about a banned company director who is promoting a “new business” (prostitution) which has a website (named in the NZ Herald) involving an escort agency (prostitution) directory. However, the website domain name, first registered on  21 March 2011, is listed as being owned by a defunct company – Truth Publications Ltd – a company which was struck off the Register of companies on 25 February 2011.  It was put into liquidation on 21 October 2009 and the auditor’s report showed it owed over $600,000 to creditors. Therefore AFTER Truth Publications Ltd was struck off, the NZXescorts domain name was registered to it. The registrant’s email is given as dermott@truth.co.nz (Dermott Malley was one of two directors of the now defunct company).

The banned director is reported to be planning to stage an Auckland City hardcore pornography promo event on 24 September 2011 to promote his escort agency business.

The Registrar of Companies, the Manager of the National Enforcement Unit of the Companies Office and the senior officials of the Ministry of Economic Development, will no doubt be very interested to learn about those who may have deliberately supplied false information pertaining to companies to those administering public registers.

Source: Story by Frances Morton. June 5, nzherald.co.nz

One week after pleading guilty to directing a company while banned, porn magnate Steve Crow has announced a new business venture. [Crow is listed as a "disqualified director" on the Companies Office website www.companies.govt.nz - banned for four years under s. 385 of the Companies Act 1993 from promoting, directing or managing any company].

Crow launched an online escort directory, [pornographic website link deleted] on Friday.

[The domain name of the website registered on 21 March 2011, is owned by Truth Publications Ltd, a company struck off the Registrar of Companies on 25 February 2011. The Registrant contact for the website is listed as former Truth Publications CEO Demott Malley Tel. dermott@truth.co.nz. See www.dnc.org.nz.]

He [Crow] plans to promote it [the website owned by a defunct company - Truth Publication Ltd] with a second Boobs on Bikes down Queen St on September 24 – the day the All Blacks take on France in the Rugby World Cup at Eden Park.

Crow said escorts listed on the website would be bodypainted with rugby jerseys in New Zealand and French sporting colours.

The next Boobs on Bikes is scheduled for August 4.

Crow said he may not seek a permit from Auckland Council for the second parade.

He maintained his involvement as a “marketing consultant” in the new venture did not contravene his director ban. “I’m not running it. David Crow my brother is. He’s the CEO.”

Full Story: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/connect/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501833&objectid=10730335

An Auckland Council commissioned report has found the Palace Hotel’s owners, John and Michael Chow, failed to ensure the building was being safely renovated. The Council is considering prosecuting the Chows following the report’s findings. Meanwhile a bill for more than $200,000 – the council’s costs arising from the building’s collapse – has been sent to the Chow Group.

Report by Susie Nordqvist http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10711133

The first New Zealand study of “out-of-control sexual behaviours” and their impact on relationships has been completed by Massey psychology student Karen Faisandier as part of her honours degree.

Of the 621 participants in the anonymous online survey, two-thirds were assessed as having out-of-control sexual behaviour. There people were more likely to be anxious about closeness and find relationships threatening.

By contrast, most of the other respondents perceived relationships as safe, partners as trustworthy and intimacy as desirable.

Study shows sex addicts turned off by intimacy.  The Dominon Post, p. A11, December 18, 20100

[Note: The SPCS has as one of its objects: "To focus atention on the harmful nature and consequences of sexual promiscuity, ... pornograhy.."].

Ms Faisandier said women with out-of-control sexual behaviours were more likely to be turned off by intimacy in a relationship than men. “But perhaps it just indicates … women will acknowledge and mention these anxieties, whereas men just don’t.”

Clinical psychologist and sex therapist Robyn Salisbury said it wasn’t uncommon for people with sex addictions to shum the intimaby they got at home, in favour of finding it elsewhere. “People who present with that sort of problem are no longer enjoying the sex. I’m sure Tiger Woods would say that, at the beginning, he had a great time but it actually would have got a bit ho-hum.”

Participants were also asked about alcohol and drug use, as well as their moods, to see if any links could be drawn. Depression was more prevalent in the minority group – a trend found only in New Zealand so far.

Anna Anastazja Horlor, 59, who operated four Christchurch brothels employing 80 workers, was sentenced yesterday in the Christchurch District Court to six months home detention and 200 hours community work on two charges of receiving income from underage sex workers.

See full story by MARTIN VAN BEYNEN – The Press http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/4447807/Brothel-madams-sentence-appalling Horlor lives in a two-storey house in a private lane in Beckenham near the foot of the Port Hills. The house is worth about $850,000.

The offences occurred at the Atami Bathhouse in central Christchurch in 2007.

The legal minimum age to work as a prostitute or stripper is 18.

Judge David Saunders said he was stopping short of a jail sentence because denunciation of the offences could be achieved by Horlor’s name becoming public and the loss of her brothel manager’s certificate.

She could now have no direct involvement in the industry, he said. Home detention was a serious sentence, and Horlor would be required to put something back into the community.

The mother of one of the former strippers said the sentence seemed “appallingly light”. She cannot be named because her daughter has name suppression.

She said her daughter, a former Manchester St prostitute who stripped at the club on eight occasions in performances that contained sex acts with various devices and audience participation, was troubled.

“If she was the daughter of a doctor from Fendalton I’m sure the court would have looked at it differently,” she said. “My girl was only 16 and completely off the rails. “She may have been safer than out on the street, but it was still exploitation.

“So many people don’t seem to have a problem with that. It makes you worry about society.”

She had tried to make her daughter leave the club, but her daughter would have cut off all contact with home if she was pushed too hard.

Horlor was also sentenced for employing in 2007 a 17-year-old Japanese homestay pupil who told Horlor she was 18 but was unable to produce her passport. Horlor made no further inquiries.

The girl started work as a stripper and within weeks was working as a prostitute, with up to 14 clients a night.

The judge said Horlor’s guilty plea to the two charges had avoided the need for the complainants to give evidence and the embarrassment that would entail. 

Horlor was of mature years, had no previous convictions and was an intelligent woman, he said. She had qualifications but had made a lifestyle choice to work in the sex industry. Letters to the court attested to her personal qualities, and no-one suggested she was irresponsible about her obligations. She and her husband, Russell Dillon Horlor, had always sought legal advice on their obligations, the judge said.

Judith Ablett-Kerr, QC, for Horlor, said her client cared about the young women who worked for her and “helps to protect them”. Horlor had not intended to breach the law and had sought advice on her obligations to the 16-year-old.

“I didn’t really want to get into this, but this young lady was working on the streets as a prostitute before she was taken on as a stripper,” Ablett-Kerr said.

“Her safety was actually enhanced by being in the Atami Bathhouse and that was, of course, one of the major advantages of having such institutions.”

Crown counsel Lisa Preston told the court that youth was “currency” in the sex industry and people like Horlor had a high level of responsibility. The Japanese girl had been on her own in New Zealand for two years and was particularly vulnerable when she applied to work at the club. Horlor had failed to make the required checks.

The 16-year-old was “no less vulnerable” because of her troubled background, Preston said.

“She is exactly the type of young girl who will present herself to an operator like Horlor,” she said.

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/4447807/Brothel-madams-sentence-appalling

 As the New Zealand Herald reported today, girls as young as 13 are regularly working as prostitutes, supported in some cases by their parent(s), to pay for drug habits in Manukau City. Soliciting by under-age girls has also been documented in other New Zealand cities.

To address this problem, exacerbated by the passing of the PRA, the Manukau City (Regulation of Prostitution in Specified Places) Bill is being considered by politicians and Councillors.

See Parents ‘put teens into sex work’. By Andrew Koubaridis.

“Teenagers in South Auckland are being sent to work as prostitutes by their parents to pay for drugs, says an Auckland Council member…”

 http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10691979