Inside the sinister red paint attacks continuing to plague London

A fresh attack has renewed concerns that gangsters are continuing to target rival brothels on the streets of London, leaving locals “traumatised”.

A row of properties in Lowfield Road, Kilburn, was splattered with red and black paint in an early morning attack this week, with graffiti claiming one of the premises is a brothel.

Mystery surrounds these types of attack.

There is no known evidence to suggest the people living in the targeted houses on Lowfield Road are running brothels or are in debt to loan sharks, but it follows a spate of similar incidents across London in recent times.

Further east in the capital, Walthamstow has been a particular target where red paint has been splashed, smeared or daubed across multiple properties.

One of the buildings is usually singled out with the allegation that it is a “brothel” — the word scrawled on to the exterior.

In some cases, handwritten notes have been put through nearby letterboxes, identifying the same property as a brothel.

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Stella Creasy, the Labour and Cooperative MP for Walthamstow, has previously raised her concerns over these crimes of the night.

Following a succession of sinister and still unexplained red paint attacks, she called out the police for failing to treat the repeated vandalism with the seriousness it deserved.

“I am renewing my plea for some expert assistance to Waltham Forest police to catch the perpetrators,” Creasy told The Standard last summer.

So who is responsible, and why?

Last year, an attack in the early hours of May 16 in Lea Bridge Road in Walthamstow was revealed by The Standard.

Again, the word “brothel” was scrawled across the property entrance.

But this time CCTV footage appeared to reveal the attackers as two women .

In the aftermath of the incident, a man of east Asian appearance, who said he was unable to speak English, attempted to wash away the paint.

Her family had moved there only a few weeks earlier.

“I’m at a loss,” she said.

“People on this street are really upset.

My neighbour’s child thought the red paint was blood.”
Since 2023, there have been numerous red paint attacks in London and in cities around the UK, but nowhere has suffered like Waltham Forest.

The Met Police said it was aware of nine such incidents in the borough and it was actively investigating.

A spokesman said its local Safer Neighbourhoods Team was working “to ensure all investigative leads are explored and support is provided to the victims of these incidents.

Evidence, including anything flagged with a potential forensic value, has been seized and work is ongoing to identify whoever is responsible.”
Residents fear that the people behind this could escalate to physical attacks
It said investigators “are working on the assumption there is a link to other incidents in London, including in Acton and Ealing and areas outside London”.

In Waltham Forest, the council sent out cleaning teams with high-pressure sprays to help remove the paint.

Khevyn Limbajee, the council’s cabinet member for community safety, said: “The police are actively investigating the spate of vandalism that has affected properties not just in Waltham Forest but across the country.

We are supporting this investigation in any way we can, including sharing any CCTV footage we capture.

None of the properties targeted by the attacks have so far been formally identified as a brothel, although in one or two cases it has been reported that neighbours have noted male visitors arriving at all hours — and sometimes even seen them exchanging money.

Brothels are premises where more than one individual is selling sexual services.

They are illegal in the UK and can often be linked to organised crime, sex trafficking and violence or harm towards sex workers.

The age of Airbnb has also brought with it the concept of “pop-up brothels”.

The Standard has seen news reports from Hong Kong going back nearly 30 years, describing debt collectors who, as a Hong Kong police source said, “cross the legal line quite regularly” in their pursuit of debtors.

“The usual things are chaining up doors, jamming up doorlocks with toothpicks or glue and daubing threatening slogans in red paint on doors,” the source said.

In 2002 a Hong Kong businessman claimed his restaurant had been torched after he refused to pay extortion money to a Triad gang.

The first step on the road to intimidation had been spraying his premises with red paint.

The police have so far declined to comment on claims Triad gangs may be responsible, and The Standard could not find any Hong Kong reports linking red paint to brothel keeping.

There is no evidence so far of the red paint incidents in Waltham Forest or further afield being linked to increasing threats or violence.

But the fear is there, as Creasy has learned from her constituents.

She recognised there could be copycat incidents, but even so, as she told The Standard, “many residents fear that the people behind this could further escalate from paint attacks to physical attacks”.

In January last year, a Thai massage parlour in Ealing and a Japanese “gentlemen’s club” and karaoke bar in St John’s Wood were targeted in separate incidents.

Other London incidents have occurred in west Hampstead and previously in Kilburn.

On February 19 last year, at 2.30am a row of houses in Norman Road, Leytonstone was daubed with red paint and motor oil.

The Waltham Forest Echo reported a bed and breakfast property was the target and Ring camera footage had revealed two men with buckets walking into front gardens.

Notes were left at neighbours’ doors identifying the bed and breakfast as a brothel and the same message was daubed on a nearby campervan.

Following those attacks, Creasy appeared on BBC Newsnight to talk about the rising number of incidents and the lack of police response.

She wrote to the policing minister asking for the matter to be escalated.

Amid increasing media interest, on April 9 last year there was a fresh red paint incident on Hoe Street in Walthamstow, which seemed to focus on the apartment above a South Asian restaurant.

“Top floor brothel,” was the graffiti message.

A quiet few weeks followed until the incident in Lea Bridge Road.

It came to public attention only after it was seen by The Standard, raising the possibility that there may be other incidents going unnoticed or unreported.

The police say they are working on the assumption of a link between the attacks, but to date the incidents have aroused a lot of speculation and little in the way of explanatory facts.

Could some of the incidents be copycats?

Do they speak to a gang feud and attempts by one group to damage the business interests of a rival?

Will it eventually become a case for the National Crime Agency?

Perhaps.

The main hope must be, as Creasy is all too aware, that they are not the prelude to escalating acts of violence and that the perpetrators will be identified and stopped.