Does an elderly man in a home have a right to pay for sex?

[emad]

The Independent
By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
23 October 2004


This is the tale of the prostitute, the pensioner and the NHS, a latter-day baroque opera of missed opportunities and a tragic ending

The tale is told by James Barrett, consultant psychiatrist at the Charing Cross Hospital, London, who was called to see "Mr Cooper" (not his real name) after staff at the old people's home where he lived complained that he had been pestering them for sex. Mr Cooper, who was in his 80s, had been paying an elderly woman to visit him to provide sexual services. When she stopped visiting, he asked staff to arrange another prostitute, difficult for him as his eyesight and hearing were failing.

The staff demurred and Mr Cooper made advances to female carers. Dr Barrett suggested the simplest way of resolving the matter would be to comply with Mr Cooper's wishes but staff thought it illegal and didn't want "someone like that" at the home. "They seemed disappointed I was not going to prescribe a drug to lower Mr Cooper's libido," Dr Barrett writes in the British Medical Journal.

The matter was referred to the head of social services for the elderly in the borough who took legal advice. This suggested "the crime of procurement would not have been committed" were staff to call prostitutes.

More:
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/story.jsp?story=575264

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

1. Hey, if he's willing to buy and someone's willing to sell, let him

have at it.

Cheers to "Mr. Cooper" for having a libido as an octagenarian.

[name not needed]

2. Heh

[radwriter0555]

3. oh HELL yeah! Good grief the guy's got NOTHIN else, let him get waxed

once in a while.

It's his money!

You GO grandpa!!!!! Yee HAW!

[BiggJawn]

4. I certainly hope so.

Since I'll probably be in the same situation. But then, I'll be in Murka, where they WILL put Potassium Nitrate in my food...

[ElsewheresDaughter]

5. yes

[supernova]

6. Yes he does, however, the home

might have equal rights to say "not on our property." So he might have to arrange a "date" somewhere else.

If anyone here who knows more about applicable british law, it would be interesting.

[THUNDER HANDS]

7. yeah he paid for the prostitutes

but he did it with a bag full of pennies and nickels.

(Halloween-themed joke for those who remember getting bags of pennies at Halloween from old folks who didn't buy candy - my grandfather being one of them)

[Paranoid_Portlander]

8. Yes. I thought that prostitution ...

... was legal in the UK if certain rules were observed. Maybe it's procurement only if a third party (the nursing home) is involved in making the arrangements. I'm guessing here. Anyone familiar with British law? Maybe "Mr. Cooper" is too disabled to make the initial phone call himself. If he had simply looked at porn, he might have ended up in more trouble under British law. What a crazy world.