STUDENT LIFE

Your stories

Life as a student prostitute

Abigail is studying at the University of Nottingham. She became a prostitute after getting into debt.

Financial difficulties and being a student have always been intrinsically linked.

Most students will take extra loans or get a part-time job. Abigail, 20, decided when things got desperate that she would have sex for money.

"It was always something I'd considered from a young age, when I was about 15 or 16, I never really thought it was anything particularly bad...

"I was running desperately low on money and food so that was a big booster in helping me take the step in making that phone call."
Enjoyable

The phone call was to an escort agency who set Abigail up with her first client.

"My first job was very enjoyable it was with someone who was very nice and that led me to think it would be quite exciting as a job."
Abigail's second job opened her eyes to the dangers of what she had entered into.

"He was taking cocaine and there was evidence that there had been a fight in the flat. There was blood on the money and a broken statue on the floor.

"He tried to strangle me a couple of times while we were in bed together. I felt in danger at the time...

"I just thought well, there's going to be bad jobs, there's going to be good jobs. There was no point quitting because of one bad punter."
Boyfriend

Abigail now sets up appointments by herself, advertising in local papers and on the Internet.

She rents an apartment with another girl and makes on average between £700-800 a week, working 10am - 3pm.

She also has a boyfriend.

"I don't see it as intimacy, I see it as a job. I'm providing a service, I put on an act [and] it's over within 20 minutes...

"I've been with [my partner] a long time, he doesn't mind at all. It's very different being with someone you love and someone that's paying you."

To listen to the full interview with Abigail click on the link below:
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* Contact the BBC Radio Nottingham Actionline on 0115 934 8484 or email: actionline@nottinghamcvs.co.uk >