Europe’s first brothel for women goes bust

WALDSHUT (GERMANY), JAN 18: Europe’s first brothel catering for women has gone bankrupt because customers refused to pay up, German police said on Friday.

The brothel owner, whom police named only as Clemens K., 31, was arrested in Germany after he resorted to mugging an elderly couple with a toy gun. ‘‘He told us his brothel had gone bust. If they’d operated like a normal brothel and made sure they got the money before the sex, they would have been all right,’’ said Peter-Georg Biewald, a police spokesman in Waldshut, southwestern Germany.

‘‘But they didn’t ask for money until afterwards and the women only paid for what they thought the service had been worth.’’

Clemens ran the brothel with five other male prostitutes in the village of Leibstadt in Switzerland, close to the German border.

‘‘When it opened at the beginning of December, the media celebrated it as Europe’s first brothel for women. But I can’t imagine he had a lot of visitors,’’ said Biewald. The brothel was called Angels and occupied a Swiss chalet-style house. (Reuters)