From life behind the blacked-out windows of an Edinburgh brothel to a world of pimps, escorts and PunterNet, a former prostitute has spoken out about working in Scotland's sex industry for the last 15 years.

In a series of candid interviews to mark the launch of the End Prostitution Now campaign, 'Cassie' reveals the grim reality of life as a sex worker and her harrowing experiences of rape and drug addiction.

Cassie was just 17 when she stepped into an Edinburgh sauna naively expecting a job as a receptionist and cleaner.

From there her life quickly spiralled out of control, leaving a job as a trainee hairdresser for 13-hour shifts in a brothel where she could see up to 12 clients a day.

Working as the only pre-op transsexual in the sauna, Cassie says she was viewed as a "speciality" who could bring in extra business for the brothel owners.

"The minute I walked through the door I realised what it was and that actually it was a brothel," says the 32-year-old.

"It was almost like working in a factory. Stuff comes down the conveyor belt, you pack it, it goes.

At the weekends, Cassie would work with around 14 girls during one shift between four bedrooms, earning £30 per client, of which the sauna would take £10 in addition to an entry charge.

"The money was the only thing," she says. "It wasn't enjoyable. What was enjoyable for me was the cash.

"The punters didn't value me, I didn't value them. There was no valuing involved, any girl that kids themselves or does the job because they want to be adored by the punter or accepted by the punter or made to feel beautiful by the punter, you're doing it for the wrong reasons.

"It wasn't glamorous, it wasn't glamorous at all."

As part of the frank set of interviews, Linda Thompson from the Women's Support Project spoke to Cassie about how she moved from brothels to escorting after being recruited by a pimp who promised her hundreds of pounds a day and "nice clients".

The reality, as Cassie discovered, was far different.

"When I worked in the flats with pimps, I've seen so many girls just fall apart," she says.

"They'd come into it with a sparkle in their eye and they'd leave like a shadow of themselves. A lot of damaged girls, a lot of girls getting pregnant from clients. A lot of them getting really bad STIs.

"Any pimp will exploit - for them they're making money. They don't care about the girls that are working for them, they don't care about their sexual health, they don't care about their well-being, they don't care about their mental health.

"The more broken these girls are the more control they have over them. If you threaten to leave, you were told that you wouldn't be able to work in Edinburgh. Or you'd have to give him a big payment there and then, to pay him off. That's how it worked."

After leaving her pimp, Cassie says he made "life unbearable" for her, going on forums such as PunterNet.

"One of my clients at the time had text me and said: 'Someone's written something about you that's not very nice up on PunterNet' and I was like 'PunterNet?' I'd never been told about this before ever.

"They're basically the most degrading forums, what punters do is they go on and they name the girl and they name whereabouts she works and put her telephone number up."

In 2014, Police Scotland estimated that around 8000 people were involved in the sex trade in Scotland.

The End Prostitution Now campaign, which launched on February 15 with the Women's Support Project, is joining with charities across Scotland to raise awareness of the issues men and women face in the industry.

From mental health issues to problems with drug and alcohol addiction and a rise in the report of STIs, the project hopes to address some of the issues faced by sex workers.

For Cassie, the impact has been huge on her relationships with others and in turning her towards drugs.

"Emotionally I'd say I am quite hard," she says. "And you grow really thick skin.

"You'll get into a routine of having to have drugs to see clients and it's a downward spiral.

"It's like you do coke in order to escort and if you're escorting all the time - you're doing coke all the time. So you become a coke addict, that's escorting.

"It's not what you want to be because your money's getting spent as you're working. Pointless."

Prostitution has also exposed her to violent situations as she speaks of being beaten up and raped by three men.

"When you tell a client you don't do something but they force you to do it, as in they'll hold you down and do it," she says.

"Or they start to get a bit too rough and you tell them the session's over, it's time for you to leave, they will not take no for an answer, hold you down and just do what they want to do anyway.

"It's like every day if you get through that day and you're still alive at the end of it you're kind of like, 'oh well that's been a good day'."

Cassie has been out of Edinburgh's sex scene for the past six months to focus on a building a career as a freelance hair stylist and make-up artist.

Although she is learning to value herself more, she admits she may go back to escorting at some point in the future.

She adds: "I think in the six months I've kind of really learned to appreciate that my body is my body. I've kind of rediscovered my own body in a way and seen it through my eyes and not through someone else's. You really learn to value yourself a wee bit more."

A spokesperson from the End Prostitution Now campaign says it is important to share stories like this to uncover the often unheard voices of those working in prostitution in Scotland.

Linda Thompson, who carried out the interview, said: "In my interview with Cassie I was struck by how very strong, confident and assertive a woman she was but still the power and control lay with the managers, the pimps and the punters.

"Cassie really brought it home to me how women are treated behind the closed doors of Edinburgh's sex industry and how any vulnerability will be exploited for the benefit and profit of others."

To find out more, visit the End Prostitution Now website.