Telegraph News

Blackburn prostitute arrested ‘for breaching ban’

By Sam Chadderton

9:32am Monday 22nd March 2010

A PROSTITUTE with an ASBO has been arrested on suspicion of soliciting in an area she is banned from.

Police said Natasha Coker, 23, of Hollin Bridge Street, Blackburn, was seen in an area of Bank Top which she is prohibited from entering.

According to officers, the ‘prolific’ street sex worker threatened to jump into a river behind the Lidl store, off Bank Top, before being arrested by officers. Coker had been wanted by police for the previous 10 days and was arrested on suspicion of three breaches of her ASBO and a racially aggravated public order offence.

In January, she became the first prostitute in Blackburn to be given an ASBO banning her from the town centre’s so-called ‘red-light district’.

It was after she was said to have repeatedly refused to engage with attempts by the authorities to offer her treatment, rehabilitation and education.

She also failed to turn up to a course offered through a new conditional caution alternative to prosecution.

But just weeks later, she was back before Blackburn magistrates after being caught ‘loitering’ inside the exclusion zone. Coker claimed to have been ‘fleeing a client’ who she had ripped off.

She was given a community supervision order for 12 months with a six-month drug rehabilitation requirement.

Police have previously labelled her one of Blackburn’s ‘most notorious’ prostitutes.

On Friday, she was being questioned by police over her most recent alleged breaches.

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