A SENIOR civil servant has admitted to helping manage a vice den.

John David Wilkinson appeared in court alongside a Chinese brothel madam who ran a series of suburban sex premises across the region.

The network of brothels was smashed following an undercover police investigation which led to raids involving 100 officers from three forces and the UK Border Agency in March last year.

Hai Hong Lui based her brothel empire in rented homes in Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland, Middlesbrough and also in East Mount Road, Darlington.

She attracted customers through newspaper adverts.

Callers to an advertised number were directed to the brothels where sexual services were offered at £60 for half an hour.

Following the raids, a handwritten love letter from Wilkinson, 61, to Lui, 55, linked the pair. Wilkinson, of Moorhill Court, Sunderland, claimed he first met Lui when he went to her as a client for a massage he needed for a bad back.

However, before long he was paying her £1,000 a month for her services and helping her run her operation.

Lui, of Eastbourne Avenue, Shipcote, Gateshead, was jailed for nine months at Newcastle Crown Court.

Wilkinson was given a £1,500 fine after admitting controlling prostitution for gain and assisting in the management of the Darlington den.

Eric Elliott, representing Wilkinson, said: “It is quite clear during the period, which grew from a massage at a flat, as far as he was concerned he was in a loving relationship.

“He was totally besotted about her.

“He got no financial benefit at all.

“At the end of the day the court is dealing with a very sad man who stands both embarassed and humiliated.”

A second man, Kenneth Moat, 51, of Forest Hall, Newcastle, was given a conditional discharge for transporting a working girl.

Lui turned her back on a career as an interior designer to run a restaurant and eventually became a prostitute.

She attracted fellow prostitutes from China and South East Asia because she spoke good English and began to manage their movements.

After meeting Wilkinson, he helped her arrange tenancy agreements with landlords who did not know their properties were being used as brothels.

The court accepted that none of the girls had been “trafficked” and were there of their own volition.

Wilkinson was implicated in the scheme when officers found a note from him discussing how lucky the pair had been to avoid detection by police.

He was arrested when he returned from a holiday in Barbados.