Appeal judges deal blow to anti-vice efforts in Dundee

Further to recent posts concerning crime and anti-social behaviour in Dundee, a recent appeal court ruling will do nothing to help the authorities in their fight against prostitution in one area of the city. Appeal judges overturned a prostitute's conviction for public indecency, saying that it was not possible to determine the likelihood that the woman and her client - on whom she was performing oral sex - would be seen by members of the public.

But the location in question was Dundee's Eastern Ceremony, and the incident took place before 8.30 pm on an early July evening, thus at the height of summer and in broad daylight. And while the pair clearly took steps to avoid the public gaze, and the cemetery was unlikely to be thronging with people, this wasn't a cold January evening in complete darkness, when the likelihood of anyone seeing the couple would have been greatly reduced.

Thus it's not surprising that SNP councillor Craig Melville has branded the conduct "distasteful and insensitive", and in an Evening Telegraph report he raised the prospect of "someone going to visit the grave of a relative and seeing a prostitute there". And a lot more besides, presumably. Tayside Police also acknowledge the "sensitivity" of the location, but clearly there is a reluctance on the part of the authorities to directly criticise the appeal judges.

But it was the growing problem of prostitution in this area which last year led the Scottish Sun to claim that Dundee was "in the grip of a vice explosion". A claim downplayed, of course, by the city's powers that be, with SNP administration leader Ken Guild describing the newspaper's article as "unwarranted slurs". Which perhaps slightly contradicts Councillor Melville's description of the scenario depicted in the cemetery - which took place only days before the Sun's article was published - as "distasteful and insensitive".

Indeed, it was a letter in the Tele describing Stobswell as the "red light area of Dundee" which led to Mr Melville responding that the authorities "will never give up", which again seems particularly apposite in view of the ongoing nature of the prostitution issue, which periodically raises its head in articles and letters in the Dundee press. And in turn a response asks how many times we've heard this kind of thing from the area's councillors, and claims that "this is the language of people who are in denial".

Meanwhile, Lord Provost John Letford's claim that as a resident of the Charleston area for 50 years he finds "upsetting" allegations that it is being turned into slum has been challenged by a resident in yet another letter in the Tele. The correspondent says the problems represent the "reality that many of us are living through". Indeed, it should be recalled that reality for the Lord Provost includes being chauffeured around in a luxury motor car with number plates alone worth £150,000, which he has recently reiterated won't be sold to help replenish depleted council coffers, since they represent part of the city's "heritage". And Mr Letford will also have police at his beck and call, neatly exemplified by the time he had riot police sent to the door of an elderly Dundee resident for the heinous crime of calling the LP an "embarrassment" in an email. With Mr Letford living through this kind of reality, it's no wonder he finds the claims about his beloved Charleston "upsetting".

(For a more liberal perspective on the appeal court ruling see Lalland Peat Worrier's blogpost.)