'I manage a legal brothel - I'm not a pimp, I empower women and needed a degree to apply'

Catherine De Noire oversees a huge brothel with 100 rooms for her sex workers - and the madam insists she is an ethical boss.

While the traditional image of brothel owners is not always a positive one, Catherine says the women who work for her are given emotional support, with security on hand to ensure their safety.

The brothelboss regularly shares stories from her nine years in the business, from comedy moments to scary incidents, on her social media. She tells how the establishment is open for 19 hours a day, seven days a week, with sex workers paying a flat £173 fee for renting a room for the day.

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The brothel, which doesn't take a percentage of the totals earned by its workers, lets employees set their own boundaries when it comes to the sex acts they want to offer.

Catherine says they have the freedom to refuse to entertain a client for any reason too, with an alarm they can sound for security mid session to hail guards trained to reach any of the 100 rooms in just eight seconds.

"Sex work is legitimate work," said Catherine in an interviewwith Metro. "There are women coming to us saying: 'I need money, I tried being a cashier but it's awful'. I'm not in a position to judge them because we all work for money."

The manager insisted people are rarely pushed into becoming sex workers at the European brothel. "A lot of the women here have university degrees, can speak different languages, and have different options but they still decide to come here, make fast money and be their own boss," she said.

Catherine's father is a nuclear physicist, while her mother is a language teacher. She says they're fine with her edgy occupation, at least after her mother got over the initial shock. She applied for the job aged 22, after graduating from university with a psychology degree and noticed it was a requirement, due to being able to provide emotional support, for the position.

Clients entering the brothel range from virgins to widows and widowers, with Fridays and Saturdays the most popular nights. British men on stag nights are common customers.

While the clients are not vetted apart from being checked for sobriety, the manager insisted it was a safe place to work. "I think if you want to harm a sex worker you don't come to a club like this because there's security and we will call the police," said Catherine. "There's always someone in that hallway."

The sex workers meanwhile, average age 30, with a few women in their 60s working at the brothel. Many employees have degrees and some only work a couple of days a month to supplement their incomes.