A SENIOR Merseyside churchman last night called for the legalisation of prostitution and drugs to protect women working on the streets.
Dr John Elford, former Canon of Liverpool Cathedral, last night slammed the Government's "self-righteous" attitude which he said was criminalising vulnerable young women and putting their lives at risk.
Now theologian emeritus at Liverpool Cathedral and Liverpool Hope University College, DrElford was speaking out after a suspected serial killer claimed the lives of five prostitutes in Ipswich.
He told the Daily Post he was morally ashamed to live in a society which criminalised prostitution and forced young women to walk the streets.
Five women have been found dead in the Ipswich area since December 2. One body remains in the woodland where it was found and police have confirmed thatfour of the five bodies were those of prostitutes whohad been murdered.
Dr Elfordsaid he believed the police were put in an impossible position of trying to protect these women from harmwhile at the same time being expected to prosecute the same vulnerable women for soliciting and taking drugs.
He called on the Government to decriminalise soliciting immediately and said properly monitored tolerance zones should be set up across Merseyside so prostitutes could work safely.
Dr Elfordsaid: "I feel very angry about the society we live in and am fed up with a government whoare more bothered about their own interests and pandering to the self-righteous than they are in caring for the vulnerable.
"What is society's hang-up about sex when these women are being destroyed by drugs and prostitution and often end up losing their lives?
"In Ipswich these poor young women's lives have ultimately been taken by a murderer but the lives of prostitutes all over the country are being destroyed daily.
"They are abused and taken advantage of and people forget that these women are someone's daughter, sister and in most cases someone's mother.
"Surely, we must all be fed up of driving home at night and seeing these young girls on our streets in incredible danger."
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