Cynthia Payne

CYNTHIA PAYNE d2015. English brothel keeper and party hostess who made the headlines during the 1970-1980s, when she was acquitted of running a brothel at 32 Ambleside Avenue Streatham London. She first came to national attention in 1978 when police raided her home and found a sex party in progress. Famously men (including MPs / Judges & celebrities) paid with luncheon vouchers at her premises to dress up in lingerie and be spanked by young women. When the case came to trial in 1980, she was sentenced to eighteen months in prison which was reduced to a fine and six months on appeal. In 1986, the police raided her home again, this time during a "special party" she was hosting after shooting the film of her life had been completed. Although she was acquitted on this occasion, the resulting court case in 1987 made lurid headlines in the British Press for several weeks afterwards. In July 1988, she stood as a candidate to become MP for Streatham for The Payne and Pleasure Party in order to change the sex laws, but failed to win the seat. She later became a popular after-dinner speaker and launched her own range of "adult" services and products in 2006. She died recently on 15th November 2015 aged 82.