The Evening Gazette has launched a campaign which will see it name and shame kerb-crawlers in a bid to stop them coming to Teesside.

The newspaper launched its Kerb The Crawlers campaign as more than a dozen men were convicted of soliciting females for the purpose of prostitution following a police blitz.

Many of the men were from outside Teeside and from as far away as Rochdale and Scotland, and as the Gazette's campaign kicked-off all their details were published in the paper.

And in an effort to stop men travelling to Teesside to buy sex it will continue to publish details of convicted kerb-crawlers - and if the men are from outside the area it will also pass on their names to newspapers in their home areas.

Editor Steve Dyson said: "We are fed up to the back teeth of hearing from the police and the courts about the high numbers of men, some from miles outside our area, who come in to trawl our streets for prostitutes; so many of whom are under-age, vulnerable and addicted to drugs.

"The nature of this trade on Teesside is not only tragically damaging the young girls who are often drawn by a heroin habit into this seedy world, it is damaging the lives of householders and others who are constantly confronted with it outside their homes or on their way to work.

"Prostitution is a major social issue in this area, linked as it is to a burgeoning drugs culture. And we fully support the message coming from police, councillors and community leaders, that we will no longer tolerate it."

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