Commentary on Sections Part 1: Provisions for Combatting Crime and Disorder. Local child curfew schemes Section 46: Placing of advertisement relating to prostitution
146.Subsection (1) makes it an offence to place an advertisement relating to prostitution in or in the immediate vicinity of a public telephone box with the intention that it should come to the attention of others. Prostitution is a word widely used in existing legislation and it is well established that it covers all types of sexual services offered for reward.
147.Subsections (2) and (3) define an ‘advertisement relating to prostitution’ for the purposes of subsection (1). Under subsection (2) an advertisement will be considered an advertisement relating to prostitution if it is for the services of a male or female prostitute or if it indicates that such services are available at particular premises. Under subsection (3) an advertisement will be presumed to be an advertisement for prostitution where a reasonable person would consider it to be one. However the subsection also allows a person accused of this offence to produce evidence to rebut that presumption by showing that the advertisement was not in fact for prostitution.
148.Subsection (5) defines ‘public telephone’ and ‘public place’ for the purposes of this offence. A public telephone is any telephone in a public place that is made available for the use by the public or a section of the public and includes any structure such as a box, shelter or hood which it is located in or attached to. A ‘public place’ is one to which the public have access or are permitted to have access, whether on payment or otherwise. So a telephone situated on privately owned land such as a railway station concourse or shopping centre would be covered by the definition of public telephone. However the definition of public place excludes places to which children under sixteen are not permitted to have access or places which are wholly or mainly residential. This means, for example, that a telephone situated in a nightclub to which only adults have access or a “halls of residence” would not be covered.
149.Subsection (6) amends the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 to give the police the power to arrest people without a warrant in relation to this offence.