QUESTIONS are being asked after it emerged Wiltshire Police has allowed a brothel to remain open in the centre of Trowbridge for around a decade.

Swindon Crown Court heard that police visited the ‘massage parlour’ in Norwood Court, which is off Wicker Hill, last June and found two mature women, both from the local area, working in the premises with a client. Both said they were content to be working there.

Last Thursday mother-of-two Marion Meyer-Smith, of Chepstow, who managed the brothel, pleaded guilty to running it since 2002 and received a 12-month jail term suspended for two years.

Women working at the brothel were giving her half their takings, the court heard, and when she was questioned she said she would take £100 to £150 a week from the business while another person got the rest.

Passing sentence, Recorder Robert Pawson said: “Some people describe it as the oldest profession in the world but the fact is it is against the law.

“Whether they are trafficked or not, and I accept they were not, they are still people being exploited for sex.”

The court heard that around nine years ago a letting agent had contacted the police to tell them what was going on there and received an acknowledgement from the force.

Trowbridge councillor John Knight said: “It’s absolutely shocking and inexcusable that the brothel was allowed to remain open and the police have a lot to answer for.

“I had no idea that kind of thing was going on there but if the police did they should have shut it down immediately.

“Prostitution really is a big problem and you have to wonder why Wiltshire Police aren’t giving it a higher profile.”

An employee at a nearby shop, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: “The police should have shut it down when they first heard about it as it brings the town into disrepute.”

This week DS Sergeant Chris Hitchcock, of Wiltshire Police’s intelligence unit, said: “Officers attended this address as part of a National Crime Agency led operation into human trafficking.

“The aim was to gather intelligence and identify whether there were any vulnerable people being exploited. Sex working comes with a huge range of threats and those involved are vulnerable.

“It can often be linked with serious sexual offences, drug use or organised crime and the force takes reports of this nature very seriously.”

Wiltshire Police recently ran an operation on prostitution and human trafficking, urging people to alert them if they knew or suspected houses were being used as brothels.