Consent laws now protect sex workers against non-paying clients
Natasha Ambrose was a victim of sexual assault when a client refused to pay her for her services. (ABC News: Esther Linder)
In short:
The victim of a man convicted of sexual assault after he refused to pay her for sex-work services says she is relieved the case was prosecuted.
NSW's 2022 consent laws have been used to prosecute non-payment of sex workers as a sexual offence, with one of the first convictions under the changed laws.
The case has raised questions about NSW Police's frontline officers' responses to changing legislation and community values.
A woman who successfully brought a sexual assault case for non-payment of sex work says she is relieved her case made it to court.
Warning: This story discusses sexual assault.
In one of the first cases under NSW's consent laws to prosecute the non-payment of a sex worker as an assault, Harjeet Saini has been convicted of sexually assaulting Natasha Ambrose by refusing to pay her.
The conviction has also raised questions about NSW Police's frontline officers' understanding of, and engagement with, changing legislation, lawyers for Saini's victims have said.
Saini is due to appear before the NSW District Court today to face sentencing on 11 counts of sexual assault against at least four women, by engaging their services as sex workers, then repeatedly refusing to pay them, after pleading guilty in August.
'Textbook' pattern of behaviour
Natasha Ambrose is a freelance sex worker and trans woman whom Saini engaged for sexual services over a period of 10 months. He paid each time in full via bank transfer.
But after a booking in March 2024, Ms Ambrose says he showed her a transfer receipt on his phone and verbally confirmed he had paid her, despite the money not landing in her account.
"I thought that was weird … but I didn't think much of it," she said, after he showed her another bank message apparently depicting the funds sent.
Ms Ambrose said she contacted Saini several days later and never received a response.
In the months following, "I started hearing reports that looked eerily similar," she said, including hearing from other sex workers of "textbook" patterns of clients not paying for the services they requested.
Changing ideas of consent
NSW's newest consent laws — introduced by former Liberal attorney-general Mark Speakman — came into effect in 2022, and largely focus on the need for "positive" consent, or an affirmative yes to sexual activity — either verbal or physical — rather than the absence of a no.
However, a smaller clause in the legislation focusing on "fraudulent inducement" caught the attention of the Inner City Legal Centre (ICLC), a Sydney community legal service specialising in LGBTQIA+ issues, the centre's CEO Katie Green said.
Katie Green says previous attempts to report non-paying clients to police were dismissed as a civil issue. (ABC News: Esther Linder)
"At its most basic, [the legislation states] you can't manipulate someone into having sex with you by making a promise and then not coming good on the promise — that can be sexual assault,"she said.
Similar legislation in Queensland and the ACT has led to the convictions of several perpetrators of sexual assault.
Lawyers from the ICLC's dedicated sex worker legal service supported a number of clients in reporting to NSW Police, including Ms Ambrose, who reported experiences of not being paid after being engaged by Saini, during February and June 2024.
Saini was arrested in July 2024 after a strike force was established to investigate the sexual assaults as part of a predatory pattern of behaviour where he would engage a sex worker, then pretend to pay, or refuse to pay at all.
Ms Green said previous attempts to report non-paying clients to police had been dismissed as a civil issue, rather than a criminal case, and clients had been discouraged from reporting by police.
"We understood with our clients why they wouldn't want to bother making a report to police [under those circumstances]," she said, with most just wanting to be paid for their work and move on rather than having to engage with the justice system.
Ms Ambrose's assault by Saini is one of the first convictions under the new law, where consent has been revoked after the perpetrator promised to pay for sexual services rendered — money which never materialised.
Non-payment of sex workers is common, both Ms Ambrose and the ICLC said.
"You do everything you can to ensure that you never not get paid," Ms Ambrose said.
"It's a relief," she said of the conviction, "A relief for the other girls of the [sex work] industry."
"You don't want it to happen to anyone."
Police 'quite ignorant' of legislation
The ICLC says Ms Ambrose's case highlights something particularly problematic in the force: officers not understanding the very laws they are sworn to enforce, as well as holding on to outdated attitudes about sex work that affect whether charges are laid against offenders.
Cecelia Henry, a senior lawyer at the ICLC, accompanied clients to give statements, only to meet with officers not comprehending that the behaviours detailed were in fact unlawful.
"The police were quite ignorant about this," she said.
Ms Henry said roughly two-thirds of her clients were initially turned away from multiple police stations while trying to report sexual assaults against them.
"When we've attempted to report it [assaults] to the police, the response has been a dismissal … because that is a civil issue, in their view,"Ms Henry said.
Street-based and freelance sex workers are particularly vulnerable to sexual assault, given they often work alone and have little recourse to protections such as security or background checks.
In one incident, Ms Henry had to cite the section of the legislation in order to get an appointment with a constable, and in another, she says a detective asked if she would leave the room before they would speak to her client.
Ms Ambrose said her first report to the police mirrored those of other ICLC clients.
Natasha Ambrose described NSW Police as dismissive of her sexual assault when she first went to report it. (ABC News: Esther Linder)
"I very strongly got the impression that they were like, 'That's not going to amount to anything,'" she said.
"It's the dismissal of the negative sexual experiences of sex workers … you don't get to have the same access to not just pity, but the law, as other people — which is absurd," she said.
Ms Green said police attitudes were a deciding factor in crimes being investigated in the first place because of NSW Police's role as the reporting and investigating authority.
The NSW Police Force told the ABC all first responders, criminal investigators and managers had been given training on the legislative changes, "including providing a trauma-informed response to reports of sexual violence", with detectives undergoing further training on investigating such crimes.
The spokesperson said the force "continues to drive a victim-centric approach to sexual violence and to work with victims in a trauma-informed manner".
"NSW Police Force takes all reports of sexual violence seriously, and encourages the reporting of sexual violence offences to police, including those committed against sex workers," the spokesperson said.
Precedent a 'game changer'
The Sex Workers' Outreach Project's (SWOP) CEO Kerrie Jordan echoed the ICLC's concern with NSW Police's engagement with sex workers.
"It concerns me specifically for frontline police officers that they don't understand the implications for sex workers of the new consent laws," she said.
"It is very concerning that it is left to the complainant — someone who's been traumatised already and in crisis at that point — to be the one who has to educate the police on the laws and how they work," Ms Jordan continued.
A spokesperson for NSW Police said the force had worked with groups such as SWOP to "foster greater understanding and relationships" and to break down barriers to reporting crimes such as sexual assault.
Ms Jordan said the case set a precedent and was "a signal to sex workers that it's safe to report these matters and they'll be taken seriously".
Ms Ambrose has been preparing her victim impact statement for the sentencing and said the laws and the precedent to be set by this case were a "game changer" for her colleagues and friends in the industry.
"The knowledge that it can work, if you take someone through the legal process, it's everything," she said.