Camille Gordon died in March 2024

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MAYBE Soho was different 20 years ago, or maybe it will never really veer from its clash of bohemian liberation and backstreet seediness.

But there was a crossroads moment in 2004 where it became starkly clear that some balance between the two had to be redrawn.

Camille Gordon was training to be a nursery school assistant when she died in March that year.

A man apparently furious at being ripped off at the Blue Bunny Club in Archer Street, where the 23-year-old was working on the door, had stabbed her in the chest.

Her death seemed like a cold case which had been buried in the dusty filing cabinets at Scotland Yard, until last week when detectives suddenly made it clear that the passing of two decades had not meant lost hope.

Maybe the pressure to be better on violence against women and girls was a factor but either way it was welcome to see Camille’s case lifted beyond gory podcasts about unsolved crimes.

Police offered a £20,000 reward for critical information which leads to a conviction – they had first done so with the same amount many years ago – and circulated grainy CCTV images of their main suspect fleeing through the tube system.

There was also a reminder of the “Cleveland Indians” jacket that the man had been wearing, as officers used the BBC’s Crimewatch Live programme to remind people of the case.

Images of the suspect on the tube

If you walk down Archer Street today you’ll find an artisan gelateria close to where the Bunny Club stood, and the steps to what was then the Blue Bunny Club downstairs.

Camille, originally from Jamaica, was doing a job she didn’t really want to be doing, but raising money to fund a course to become a nursery school assistant.

She was not involved in sexual services, but no doubt this is what many men who found themselves in that street in 2004 were hoping for.

In Soho’s louche history, the bright lettering of the Raymond Revue Bar and the neon signs for adult bookshops may have been part of an offbeat tourist fascination.

Not in the guidebooks, however, was the proliferation of clip joints; venues as ruthless as venus fly-traps for anyone who blundered inside.

Men, for it nearly always was men, would enter looking for “company” and order a drink. Whatever they were anticipating would happen rarely materialised, and they were quickly presented with an extortionate bar bill. A round of bottled beers for £100 was more sobering than intoxicating.

If they tried to excuse themselves, tough security types would demand the tab was settled.

In the days, weeks and months after Camille died the Extra launched a campaign called “Stamp Out The Clip Joints”.

The old Blue Bunny Club in Archer Street

The paper had never been prudish covering the area’s colourful history, but now children heading into Soho Parish School were walking past police tape, a forensic tent and blood on the pavement. People who have made central London their home also joined the calls to change things.

The council said it was powerless to act. These venues – offering company, not sex and sometimes not even alcohol – were not forced to register as sexual entertainment premises by law until 2007.

No doubt there are still many basements which it would be unwise to enter in Soho, but Camille’s death certainly did more than simply prick consciences among the authorities and, in our own small way, maybe the newspaper’s campaigning did too. As the news cycle moved onto the next tragedy somewhere else, the Extra’s old news editor Joel Taylor kept asking the questions.

It wasn’t going to solve everything but the debate was necessary.

DI Andy Mortimer

In an unrelated case just a few weeks after Camille was killed, another hostess at a different clip joint fled for her life after being assaulted and chased from a doorway down Wardour Street.

This was not an isolated incident. At that time rows over fantasy bar bills often led to threats and sometimes violence.

When Camille’s mother, Doet Allen, flew to London to enhance the police appeals in the months after the stabbing, she told the paper that the “one good thing” that might come from her daughter’s death would be the eradication of clip joints in London.

“Camille was a wonderful girl and in her short life she made a positive impact on so many people,” she said. “I miss her so much.”

Her family had not known about the existence of these venues, nor that Camille had been drawn in to that world by the opportunity to raise funds.

Camille’s sister Debbie and mother Doet at an appeal in 2005

Fast forward to last week and detectives ran through the details again: a man was removed from the club after being presented with a bill for £375. He handed over around £80 and walked away, but then returned and stabbed Camille apparently boiling with rage over the expense. She died an hour later.

Investigators are hoping that a man who appeared at Kennington police station just days after the murder and asked to speak to officers may resurface. He left before anybody saw him. What did he know?

Then there is the CCTV footage from Piccadilly Circus, taken after the man had escaped down Shaftesbury Avenue.

Our ‘Stamp Out Clip Joints’ campaign

Detective Inspector Amanda Greig said: “Her family remain just as heartbroken today. They want answers and they want the person responsible for Camille’s death brought to justice. This is something we want too and we have not given up trying to get that for them.”

The official description of the suspect had the man aged between 20 and 25, so in his mid-40s now. Along with the jacket, he wore dark jeans, white trainers and possibly a baseball cap on the night of the killing.

DI Greig added: “A lot can happen in 20 years, allegiances can change. Maybe you felt unable to talk to us at the time, for whatever reason, but you are now in a position to do so. Maybe you saw the attack or you were at the club or in the area at the time of the murder?

“Maybe the person responsible has since confided in you? I would urge you to share whatever information you have with us; it will be treated in the strictest confidence and could bring much-needed closure to Camille’s family.”

Anyone with information is asked to call the incident room on 020 8785 8267, or to submit it online at mipp.police.uk