SO DESPERATE: Student Rosy Reid

PAY AS YOU LEARN: Bristol Uni

Our view: Think again, Rosie

VIRGIN Rosie Reid's pledge to auction her most precious asset is far from a joke. Advertising on the internet, she seeks £10,000 to see her through university. The 18-year-old sees the ‘sale' of her virginity as a quick-fix answer to her lack of funds. Clearly, few would entertain following Rosie's extreme solution. But the teenager remains determined to stick to her plan. She should think again. However hard-up, self-degradation cannot be the answer to any problem. Don't do it, Rosie.

Student is selling her virginity on the internet for £10,000

By Holly Jarvis

A STUDENT is so hard up she has decided to make the ultimate sacrifice ...she is selling her virginity to the highest bidder on the internet.

So far more than 400 men, many of them sickos, have placed bids offering 18-year-old Rosie Reid up to £10,000 for sex.

The drastic action has left Rosie's parents sickened. Her doctor dad has told her she "is selling her soul". Her nurse mum is outraged.

And Rosie is even willing to sleep with a man despite it being abhorrent to her—she is a LESBIAN.

But she would rather prostitute herself than see her studies suffer.

She is currently forced to work long hours in poorly paid part-time jobs to pay her tuition fees.

Rosie said: "The way things are going, I'll leave university £15,000 in debt. That's why I'm taking drastic action."

She started her Bachelor of Science degree in social policy at the University of Bristol three months ago and is already £3,000 in debt.

Rosie estimates her three-year course at the university, where Prime Minister Tony Blair's son Euan is also a student, will cost her £7,500 a year.

"I needed to raise cash and I was thinking about what I could sell," said Rosie, who has never even seen a man naked.

"It seemed that my virginity was something really valuable yet at the same time something I could do without. With £10,000 in the bank I could work less. I could live comfortably until the end of my course and concentrate on my studies.

"People have sex all the time and they do it free of charge. And I don't know many people who actually stay with the first person they ever sleep with. Unless I do something like this I'm going to be in financial trouble."

Difficult

Rosie, who has two younger brothers, placed her ad on the popular eBay website earlier this month.

Her posting, which ran alongside ads for secondhand cars and unwanted furniture, read: "Eighteen-year-old university student looking to sell virginity. Never lost it due to lesbianism. Will bung in free massage if you are any good. Picture on request."

Rosie, from Dulwich, south-east London, currently qualifies for a government loan of £3,000 a year—less than HALF what she needs to cover fees and other outgoings. She is juggling her studies with part-time jobs to pay for her food, clothes, travel and the £300 a year she needs for textbooks.

Rosie said: "The government has made it difficult for people like me to follow their ambition to study.

"I wish we could concentrate on learning rather than constantly worrying about money or working to get by.

"I think Tony Blair and Charles Clarke are encouraging a class divide, which is wrong and goes against all of Labour's principles."

The bright student, who achieved two As and a B at A-level, works three shifts a week as a silver service waitress. She often does 12-hour shifts, which means sacrificing lectures to make a modest £4.50 an hour.

She said: "Doing these kind of hours affects my studies. When I come home I'm so tired it's hard to fit in university work.

"I'm not willing to sacrifice my future for the sake of a part-time job, so I am faced with two choices—years in debt or prostituting myself on the internet for my education."

Within days of placing the ad, Rosie was bombarded with e-mails from around the world. eBay had nearly 7,000 hits on her ad over three days, almost ten a second.

But after three days the website decided to remove her. Rosie is now setting up her own website where she will continue to advertise herself.

Earlier this month American interior designer Cathy Cobblerson, 24, offered her virginity for $100,000 (£65,000) on eBay to pay off credit card bills.

But some of the depraved responses Rosie has received highlight the danger she has put herself in to make money.

A response from one man said: "What size are your breasts?" And asked whether she was willing to engage in unusual sex.

Other e-mails were supportive. One said: "You are a ballsy young lass. There is no greater gift than that of education and I admire you loads for what you are doing."

Rosie said: "On the third day the response to the auction was just huge.

"Some of the e-mails were from people just having a laugh, but I got quite a few from people saying that they really admired me, and others from people who were really sympathetic.

"One guy wrote to me and said he would pay £10,000 for my virginity. I probably would have gone for it but I waited to see what would happen." She added: "I was holding out for more cash, but also seeing if people were serious.

"You could tell those who really meant it because they would ask me about pregnancy and protection."

Rosie is in a lesbian relationship with lover Jess Cameron, a 26-year-old operations manager.

Jess said: "I fully support Rosie just as long as she's safe.

"I won't be there in the room when it happens, but I'll be nearby. I feel angry that Rosie has to be in this position at all.

Power

"It's ridiculous that the government allows this to happen. With an attitude like this, Labour shouldn't be in power." Jess, from south London, added: "I would find the whole thing hard if Rosie was going to sleep with another woman.

"But I know she doesn't care about men, so if it has to be done, I am right behind her."

Rosie added: "I'm not sexually attracted to men, but if sex is natural to so many people, it can't be that bad.

"I've never had a sexual experience with a man, so I have no idea what it would be like.

"Having sex with a woman is very intimate and is all about the mind.

"But I'm not doing this for my own enjoyment...I'm doing this so I can do my degree without struggling financially."

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