A SUSPECTED pimp has told the Gazette he was forced into the sex industry because his bid to open a children’s nursery was rejected.

The Colchester dad, who asked us to refer to him under his professional alias, Donovan Brown, is out on police bail after a seven-bedroom home he bought, in Stanway, was raided by vice cops.

The 40-year-old revealed he had recruited girls to work at the house in a bid to stave off financial ruin.

The former Londoner told how he purchased the property, in Winstree Road, after a planning agent advised him it would be a suitable venue for a nursery.

He borrowed £100,000 against his mother’s London home to buy it, together with a second Colchester home, to share with his wife and 18-month-old son.

Now juggling three mortgages – his mum’s home, his own, and the Winstree Road house – he said he was floored when councillors voted against the nursery scheme.

Mr Brown said: “I needed to use the house for something, and it had to be a business which could possibly raise the same kind of revenue as the nursery.

“It’s not my choice of business. I wouldn’t want to do this.

“I believe we can still pick it up, turn the situation round and make it into a positive thing. A nursery would still benefit the community.”

Mr Brown explained 65 residents signed a petition against the nursery scheme. He said: “If you don’t want a nursery, you don’t want a brothel.”

Asked how he went about establishing the brothel, Mr Brown said: “I applied the same acumen I had brought to the nursery industry.

“I have made a clean location for the girls. It is discreet and there was a routine designed to preserve the girls’ safety.”

The house, in Winstree Road, was one of seven raided in Colchester and Ipswich, as part of a crackdown on human trafficking, on Monday.

A young woman answered the door in her underwear, and a search revealed one room was decorated black and lit by a red lightbulb. There was bondage gear on a mattress with black sheets.

Mr Brown denied involvement in human trafficking and said he was frustrated by the high-profile police raid, as officers had known what he was doing for several months.

He was arrested on suspicion of managing a brothel, but has not yet been charged with any offence.