FRANCE: BRITISH WOMAN MARGARET MCDONALD FINED AND SENTENCED TO FOUR YEARS IN PRISON OF PROCURING PROSTITUTES FOR INTERNATIONAL CLIENTS

Record ID: 549319

  • Title: FRANCE: BRITISH WOMAN MARGARET MCDONALD FINED AND SENTENCED TO FOUR YEARS IN PRISON OF PROCURING PROSTITUTES FOR INTERNATIONAL CLIENTS
  • Date: 23rd October 2003
  • Summary: SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) LAWYER, EMMANUEL MARSIGNY, COMMENTING ON THE SENTENCE, SAYING "As you can imagine, she is very disappointed by the verdict, because she thinks it it too heavy for her. I mean, she has never been sentenced in any court anywhere. And she wants to make an appeal, because she wants to explain one more time to the court that in that sort of case, she is the only girl who is paying for everybody not the clients and not the girls and it's always the same thing." SLV REPORTERS SMV (SOUNDBITE) (English) AXEL GUERIN, AN ESCORT, SAYING: "I'm very unhappy and very sad. It's just so hypocrit (sic)." SLV AXEL GUERIN WALKING DOWN STEPS
  • Embargoed: 7th November 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PARIS, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVA85KFGMHEN0SX4FZ3C2Q5YW3XW
  • Story Text: British woman is fined and sentenced to four years in prison for procuring prostitutes.
    A British woman was found guilty of pimping and sentenced to four years in prison and a 150,000 euro (176,800 dollars) fine by a Paris court on Thursday (October 23) for running a luxury international call-girl ring.
    Margaret McDonald, 44 this month, who has two university degrees and speaks Japanese, Arabic and Greek, had rejected charges that she ran a sex ring that charged well-heeled clients up to 1,000 euros (1,200 dollars) per hour.
    McDonald sat stony-faced as the verdict was read out in court. Her lawyer said she would appeal the sentence.
    Accustomed to a haute-couture, jetsetting life, nipping between Paris, Milan, the Cote d'Azur and Greece, McDonald had looked smart and composed during her trial.
    She has already spent 16 months in jail pending the court case.
    In answer to questioning from the public prosecutor, McDonald said she had always told the employees at her escort agency that sex could take place on a date but didn't have to.
    "As you can imagine, she is very disappointed by the verdict, because she thinks it it too heavy for her. I mean, she has never been sentenced in any court anywhere.
    And she wants to make an appeal, because she wants to explain one more time to the court that in that sort of case, she is the only girl who is paying for everybody not the clients and not the girls and it's always the same thing," her lawyer Emmanuel Marsigny said after the verdict was announced.
    A woman who worked as an escort for McDonald, Axel Guerin, said the verdict was hypocritical and that she was unhappy with the ruling.
    The convent-educated graduate had the Paris courtroom hooting with laughter as she lashed out at France's ban on escort agencies.
    She said her marketing studies had helped get the business booming. "You use the same skills to sell computers as you do to sell other activities," she said.
    Tolerated in many countries, escort agencies are illegal in France, where the government has also cracked down on prostitution under a wider anti-crime campaign.
    Touting for business on the street can incur fines and six months in jail.
    McDonald had faced a maximum sentence of six years in prison.
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