Cyprus-Forum.com

by **CBBB** » Sun Mar 06, 2011 9:09 am

Fugitive sex boss says: ‘I know I can’t run forever, but Cyprus is better than miserable, rainy Wales’

* by Josie Ensor, Wales On Sunday
* Mar 6 2011

A BUSTY former brothel madam on the run from cops has taunted police chasing her, saying: “It’ll be years before I set foot in miserable, rainy Wales again.”

Sex empire boss Diana Jones spoke to Wales on Sunday from a sun-soaked Turkish enclave on Cyprus where she has been hiding for more than 18 months.

The pint-sized gran has not paid a penny of the £2.6 MILLION she was ordered to pay when her saucy business was exposed in court.

She spoke to Wales on Sunday knowing Turkey has no extradition treaty with the UK.

“I’ve made a good life for myself here,” said the Carmarthenshire-born fugitive.

“I know the sentence is never going to go away, but in the meantime there’s nice weather, a great lifestyle and everyone speaks English.”

Formidable Jones ran a string of brothels in Cardiff and Swindon which were tolerated by cops who were more concerned with working girls on the street.

But that cosy relationship was blown apart by a sex trafficking investigation – even though she had not harboured anyone brought into the UK against their will.

Once police had all the evidence of her illicit business they were compelled to take her to court.

The 47-year-old was ordered to pay back £2.6m of her estimated £4m earnings from the brothels and given a 12-month suspended sentence.

Because she fled, she could now face up to four years behind bars.

More worryingly for the authorities, Jones is now planning to lift the lid on the sex business and her famous clients.

“The book is an expose on the sex industry in Wales,” she said. “I’ve been in the business for over 20 years, and I’ve seen a hell of a lot in that time.

“It will detail what really goes on in brothels and the life of someone who has decided to sell their body for money.

“I want to strip away the taboos.

“It will look at the problem of trafficking of girls forced to work as prostitutes in the country and how it has become a huge problem since I started in the industry in the ’80s.”

Jones’s empire included Cardiff vice dens The Ambassador Health Suite, Twice as Nice, and Heaven, which are said to have netted more than £11,000 on one Six Nations rugby weekend alone.

One of her most famous clients was Plaid Assembly Member Phil Williams, who suffered a heart attack while visiting her Woodville Road parlour Twice as Nice in 2003.

She said: “He was a really nice guy who came in often.

“It was a real shame for his family and he was quite young as well.

“The book will reveal what really happened, so I won’t say too much now.”

Jones now lives in an apartment with her 11-year-old granddaughter, who is being schooled in northern Cyprus, a popular tourist destination which can see up to 40°C heat in summer.

Jones, who is the girl’s main carer, says she is earning enough money to live from a part-time job, although it is unclear if she has obtained a work permit.

She said she had left the sex industry behind in South Wales.

“I’ve realised during my time in Cyprus that it’s not all about the physical side of things, I’m going to try something new.”

She may appear worry-free, but she knows that the longer she stays in her hideaway, the worse it will be for her when she returns.

She still has the £2.6m confiscation order hanging over her head, which she says she cannot afford.

“The point is, I didn’t have the money then, and don’t think I ever will.

“When I left the UK, all I had was a suitcase of clothes that didn’t fit me, £1,000 in my pocket and my son’s ashes.”

Her son Jeffrey died of a heroin overdose shortly after her court hearing, and she said it was his death that led her to flee.

“His death was what did it,” Ms Jones said. “I was ready to stay and face the music and then he died and it was all too much. It still upsets me when I think about it.

“I could have faced anything, the sentence, the police, even my community service on the Carmarthen steam train, but after Jeff’s death, I just couldn’t do it any more,” she said.

“I just decided I couldn’t cope. I couldn’t bear walking around Cardiff and seeing all kids on drugs, it reminded me of Jeff and it became unbearable.

“I left the country and didn’t look back. There are no kids hooked on drugs on the streets in Cyprus, and being here has helped me get better in many ways.”

Jones added she was in the process of getting a divorce from husband Kevin, with whom she ran a Bridgend pub.

She now admits to “benefiting from the proceeds of crime” as she puts it, but says the girls in her parlours were happy working in the sex trade.

She added prostitution should no longer be a dirty word and should be accepted as a valid profession.

“The sex industry is about earning money, like most jobs,” she said.

“Most girls who worked for us used it as a stepping stone to other things.

“No one was forced into it.

“The police seem to be convinced that anyone who sells their body doesn’t want to be doing it”.

The ex-madam said she would have several girls from Eastern Europe working for her at any one time, but is adamant none were trafficked.

She said she always worked with police to help curb human trafficking in Cardiff, but that didn’t stop the constant raids on her parlours.

“[The police] seemed hell-bent on arresting me for human trafficking.

“I personally took two girls who I suspected had been trafficked to [a detective] before my arrest.

“There was also the case of a rape trial of a girl at my Woodville Road parlour.

“I gave the girl some money to buy some clothes to go to court, so the idea I was somehow involved in human trafficking is laughable.

“They never once did find trafficked girls during their raids, and that’s because there were no girls there to be rescued.”

Jones knows that one day her former life will catch up with her and her granddaughter, and when it does she says she’ll be prepared to hand herself in.

“We’re both really settled here and in many ways we have a much better life.

“There’s no real reason to come back to Wales really, apart from for my family, but I don’t like this sentence hanging over my head.

“I will come back in a few years, the sentence is never going to go away and I can’t avoid it forever.”

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales ... -28286130/