A family's vice crusade

I think we're the most hated people in Swin-don," Matt McCue's mother, Jo, said. She is sitting in the back of a clapped out Ford Orion outside their home in Station Road at 8.30pm, poised for another Street Watch patrol.

Her son, Matt, 54, is in the driving seat raring to go, as are his father, Jon, 70, and their six-year-old Highland terrier Sally.

They set up Street Watch to track the activities of prostitutes in their neighbourhood 21 months ago. Since then they have toured the streets of Swindon town centre every night until 11pm, apart from Christmas Day.

They get more than enough action on their own doorstep.

It was a busy night when we joined them on the Street Watch beat. We spotted five prostitutes and caught a kerb crawler.

Jo said: "We stayed on until 11.30pm to catch the crawler. It was worth waiting for."

Jo, Jon and Sally are all spotters, while Matt concentrates on the road.

Over the two and a half hour shift, they cover about 30 miles, circulating around the same streets Station Road, County Road, Broad Street and Salisbury Street are all hotspots.

Street Watch is a non-confrontational group, so when they see a prostitute the time, location and description of the female is dictated into a hand held tape recorder en route.

The group is self-funded, so the £80 a month spent on diesel and £20 on paper and printing ink comes out of their own pockets.

In its early days the patrols were carried out on foot and details recorded on the backs of their hands.

Jo said: "It was getting dangerous because we were being shouted at and chased." So they bought a cheap car, making their surveillance safer.

They are still chased, but can at least make a quicker escape. Bottles and stones have been hurled at their car and its tyres have been slashed. Small wonder a TV company has contacted them about featuring in a programme called Neighbours From Hell.

Their devotion, if extreme, is driven by one goal to reclaim their neighbourhood.

Jo said: "We just want our square back. We don't mind what the girls are doing, as long as it's not on our doorstep. Men can't go for a walk at night without being propositioned and women feel threatened."

Motorists, men and women, also face the question: "Are you looking?" on a nightly basis. More persistent prostitutes have been known to pounce on cars and climb into the passenger seat.

So far Street Watch, along with the police and Swindon Council's Anti Social Behaviour team, has secured injunctions against five women.

If they are broken, the offender can be sent to prison for up to two years.

Jo said: "We are pleased with the progress. When we first started there were 23 prostitutes on our streets. Now we're down to five or six a night. Occasionally we don't get any."

Her husband, Jon, has lived in the area for 70 years and seen the changes.

He said: "Prostitution is an old trade. But it didn't used to happen here. We were proud of our neighbourhood.

"Since Street Watch started things have improved. During the summer people felt more at ease walking about at night."

The women also change. When they first come on the streets, they have normal, healthy figures. Months later their drawn faces and emaciated bodies bear testimony to the ravages of heroin addiction. Jon said: "It's awful to see pretty women turn into skinny rakes.

"They end up working just to feed their habit. I have heard stories of girls surviving on seven bags of heroin a day. It's terrible."

Some of the girls have minders, often their boyfriends, to drum up more business.

Jon said: "They have to earn enough to feed both their habits. It's an expensive business."

During my patrol, we spotted six different prostitutes.

The new ones on the scene wore high-heeled boots and mini skirts.

Those more experienced, and further down the line of heroin addiction, were wrapped up in jeans or tracksuit bottoms and padded coats to cover their matchstick frames.

It is cold. But they are not parading up and down the streets merely to keep warm. If they keep moving, they cannot be arrested for loitering for the purposes of prostitution.

And on this occasion the police were also out in force.

Jon said: "They do a good job but haven't the resources to be here all the time. They call us 'The Professionals'."

Two officers pull up beside us in an unmarked car and exchange information, along with light banter.

But their relationship hasn't always been so harmonious. Matt McCue, a self-employed mechanic, wanted to start Street Watch eight years ago after hearing about a similar scheme in Birmingham.

He said: "We kept asking the police but were told they would arrest us if we went on patrol."

They still sometimes get stopped for kerb crawling by officers unfamiliar with their activities.

Unwilling to sit back and let the prostitutes take hold, the McCues started pounding the beat, regardless of the consequences.

After two weeks on patrols, they presented their findings to the police and were told to stay in touch.

Their methods are now more systematic. Every morning Jon transcribes the previous night's sightings and types the details into his computer. They are printed out and delivered to Swindon central police station by the afternoon.

Besides prostitution, they also help the police track down drug dealers in the area.

Matt said: "We watch them passing it through car windows, so record the registration numbers."

Street Watch may sound like a one-family operation.

But Broad Street Area Community Council voted unanimously in favour of the group. They also have five silent helpers, who want to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.

He said: "We are supported by all members of the community. Asians and Sikhs talk to us on the quiet."

Although the McCues are determined to rid their streets of prostitutes, they still sympathise with them.

Far from being a clan of witch-hunting vigilantes, they call the police if they see a prostitute in trouble.

Jo said: "We have nothing against the girls and worry if we haven't seen one of them for a while.

"People they approach sometimes lash out and we see the girls bent over on their knees in pain."

She remembers seeing one young girl being dragged along by two men and dumped in an alleyway.

Jo said: "She had been drugged. I dread to think what they had done to her. All the ambulances were busy and we waited one hour for one to arrive. I didn't sleep that night."

So the McCues also want more action against kerb crawlers.

Apparently they come from all walks of life, but are mainly middle-aged or old men.

Jo said: "When my husband was approached, he said: 'Do you know how old I am?' She said one of her regulars was 80."

She said: "We have clocked big lorries and seen the girls struggle to climb aboard. Some of the crawlers are local, others travel in."

The same applies to the prostitutes, who can come from The Parks or as far afield as Wales.

Jo said: "They used to get the train here and hang around Station Road. By and large we've scared them off now."

Towards the end of the night, the prostitutes indeed seem to have disappeared. In fact they had simply moved elsewhere. Under the Transfer Bridges and on the edge of Gorse Hill, are popular haunts.

The McCues want to improve the quality of life for everyone and have offered to spend even more of their time training Gorse Hill residents, should they launch their own Street Watch.

As yet only one couple has asked about their duties.

Jo said: "They came around and we told them what we did. We didn't hear from them again. I suppose our job wouldn't suit everyone."

Looking ahead, Street Watch hopes legalised brothels will be opened in non-residential areas of Swindon. Unless the law changes, they anticipate being on patrol for some time.

Jo said: "Even if the injunctions worked, you still get new ones. It's a vicious circle. But we have no intention of giving up. We can't let the girls or crawlers win."

Victoria Tagg