A young woman has described how she was left ‘feeling like a prostitute’ after a man made a ‘sex for rent’ proposal when he contacted her on a room-finding website.
Jasmine Emery was staying at friends’ homes and desperately hunting for a place to live when she was approached by the pervert who ‘groomed’ her over a period of weeks.
He initially tried to get her to find a house to share with him without her appearing on the tenancy agreement – which she refused – before eventually telling her he could be her ‘sugar daddy’ and suggested they could ‘f*** and I could stay for free’.
Miss Emery, 20, got him blocked from the website but said she feared for the safety of others and wanted to warn them of the risks.
She is also calling for more stringent laws to be put in place to protect people from being taken advantage of.
The Home Office began a consultation into the issue two years ago under the previous Tory government but has yet to act.
‘I want to show people it’s easy for someone to take advantage of you,’ Miss Emery told the Mail.
‘I was desperate to live somewhere but there are some people who might not be able to say no. There’s a lot of vulnerable people, a lot of young girls. I think it’s disgusting.’
Jasmine Emery, 20, was asked if she would trade sex for free accommodation after a man answered her online advert for a room
Inappropriate text messages and calls led sickened Miss Emery to accuse the man of having an Andrew Tate personality
The man contacted Miss Emery through property website SpareRoom, where she had posted a photo and some information about herself, at the end of January.
He ‘seemed perfectly fine’ at first but started insisting her name shouldnt appear on a tenancy agreement although he was ‘happy for me to move in and pay him privately’.
Miss Emery, who lives in Lowestoft, Suffolk, repeatedly told him this wasn’t acceptable and would amount to illegal subletting.
She also said a formal agreement was needed because she was receiving universal credit as she is signed off work at present while she awaits a diagnosis on a suspected chronic illness.
In calls and text messages, the man, who gave his name as Mik and said he worked in the construction industry, would ‘joke about certain things [and] I became very blunt and uncomfortable’ - although he remained undeterred.
‘He was asking me how I was getting money and then he said we could go for drinks. I was thinking that was a bit weird but I hadn’t done this before and I didn’t know what to expect really,’ Miss Emery said.
After a few weeks looking for a place to share, still without having met, Miss Emery said she was spending a few nights at her best friends home when Mik called, so she put him on the speaker to allow both to hear the conversation about a property he thought might be suitable for them.
Shocked Miss Emery complained she was left feeling like a prostitute when the man offered to be her sugar daddy and promised to look after her in many ways
‘He was saying “I could be your sugar daddy and I can look after you in many ways”,’ she said.
‘His exact words were “We could f*** and not let anyone know about it and you can stay for free". I had a partner at the time and he just said “Don’t tell him”.
‘Me being me, I just laughed uncomfortably and said I’d think about it. But then I came off the call and got really upset and angry. I texted him and said that wasn’t going to happen.’
Mik then suggested meeting in Norwich, Norfolk, for a drink and told her to wear something ‘sexy’.
‘I said no. Why would I meet up with someone I was thinking of living with and wear something sexy?’ she said.
‘It made me feel like a prostitute. I just felt so confused and angry.
‘My friend said it was like sexual assault through the phone but also being groomed. I didn’t think that at first but maybe I was.’
She then blocked Mik on WhatsApp, which they had been using to message each other, and contacted SpareRoom, who banned him from the website.
Inappropriate text messages and calls led sickened Miss Emery to accuse the man of having an Andrew Tate personality
Miss Emery said it felt like she had been groomed by the man who she said tried to take advantage of her desperate need for a room
Mik had set up disappearing messages but Miss Emery obtained screenshots of some exchanges.
One shows him writing: For this arrangement me being your sugar daddy or whatever we wanna name it I can look after you in many ways. This is just the beginning.’
He also told her: I need more than a pretty face. A pretty girl without a personality is like a supercar without an engine.’
She eventually accused him of having an ‘Andrew Tate persona’, adding: ‘Saying I could stay for free if I slept with you is actually nasty’.
He replied: ‘Don’t feel entitled cause you are a woman.’
Explaining why she didn’t walk away sooner, despite having misgivings, Miss Emery added: ‘I needed somewhere to live. I didn’t want to take advantage of my friends’ good will.’
She added: ‘The laws about this have to be made stronger. There was stuff a few years ago about it but you don’t hear much about it now.
‘But it’s happening every day and which other vulnerable people are getting taken advantage of?’
Research by housing charity Shelter found that 59,000 women were targeted by seedy current or prospective landlords March 2020 and September 2021. Around three-quarters said they were struggling to afford housing costs.
Numbers of potential victims have grown as unscrupulous landlords take advantage of the lack of affordable housing combined with the cost-of-living crisis, which has left many struggling to find a place to live.
Last year, a predatory landlord who demanded sexual favours from young female tenants to reduce their rent was jailed for two-and-a-half years.
Frederick Allard, 73, took advantage of three vulnerable women over a four-year period by asking them to perform sex acts for cheaper accommodation at his six-bedroom home in Tidworth, Wiltshire.
Allard - who was previously caught on camera propositioning a reporter posing as a 21-year-old student in a Mail investigation - demanded naked weekly massages, telling victims: Nothing is for nothing in this life.
Frederick Allard, 73, was jailed after taking advantage of vulnerable women by offering sex for reduced rent at his Wiltshire home, telling them: Nothing is for nothing in this life.
The Home Office began a consultation into the exchange of sexual relations for accommodation in early 2023.
A spokesman said: The Government is currently examining a wide range of issues and evidence as part of its work to develop a long-term strategy to halve the level of violence against women and girls.
The responses to the 2023 consultation exercise in this area will be considered as part of that process, and the strategy itself will be published later this year.
Matt Hutchinson, director of SpareRoom - which was founded in 2004 and is the UKs most popular flatsharing website, with two million visitors every month - said: ‘We have a zero-tolerance policy for inappropriate behaviour and we investigate every complaint.
‘When we receive a report of this nature, the account concerned is suspended while we conduct an internal investigation, including reviewing user activity and supporting evidence provided to us.
‘Where we have any concerns with a users activity, their account is closed permanently.’