UK police have said they could arrest newspaper editors who continue to publish brothel advertisements in an unprecedented campaign against the sordid sex trafficking trade.

Editors and publishers are likely to find themselves in front of a judge if they refuse to stop running sex ads which are later found to be linked to human trafficking.

Leading the initiative is vice squad Detective Inspector Kevin Hyland, working with the Crown Prosecution Service.

He said police were willing to charge editors and publishers with aiding and abetting sex trafficking and money laundering.

The Metropolitan Police operation follows sustained lobbying by anti-trafficking charity Croydon Community Against Trafficking, which has protested about the use of trafficked women in the borough’s illegal massage parlours for more than five years.

Read the full story in the Croydon Guardian, as well as the individual story of a victim of sex trafficking here.