12-year-olds for sale on the streets

Girls as young as 12 are being sexually exploited on British streets while the men who buy and sell them for sex escape punishment, according to the children's charity Barnardo's.

The charity called for a tightening of the law to crack down on what they termed "child sex offenders" as children's rights campaigners prepare for a congress in Stockholm to demand that governments give courts the power to prosecute adults who travel overseas to have sex with children.

It was estimated last year that more than 5,000 underage girls are working as prostitutes in Britain, and the number caught soliciting has doubled since 1990. The Children's Society said that between 1989 and 1993 nearly 1,500 convictions were secured against under-18s for offences relating to prostitution. In the same period, 1,800 cautions were issued.

Barnardo's looked at 15 months' work which had been done with 45 girl prostitutes aged between 12 and 17 in their Bradford project, Street and Lanes. Nearly 30 had been under 16 and more than half had been raped A further 12 said they had given into sex because of fear of violence.

Sara Swann, the project leader, said that attitudes must change so that these girls are seen as victims of child sex abuse rather than prostitutes.

"These girls do not go on the streets because they are drug addicts. They do not go on the streets to support their habit. They do not wake up one morning and start selling sex because they are sex mad," she said.

She said that they were ensnared by an older man - typically aged between 18 and 25 who lavished attention on them, made them dependent then forced them to work as a prostitute.

"The girls are locked into an abusive relationship when they are dependent on their 'boyfriend' who they believe loves them. He in turn offers the young women to his friends, sends them out on the streets or sells the girls on under the pretext that he loves them and knows what is best.

"The girls have been raped, physically and emotionally abused and the majority have been infected with sexually transmitted diseases, and yet the abusers go unpunished," said Ms Swann.

Girls told of being beaten up by their "boyfriend", burned with cigarettes, locked in rooms and forced to have sex with their boyfriend's friends. Sexually transmitted diseases were common, with one 15-year-old so badly infected she is infertile.

Michael Jarman, director of child care for Barnardo's, said yesterday that existing legislation should be tightened up.

At present a girl can be branded a common prostitute if she is convicted twice for soliciting. While sex with a child under 13 carries life imprisonment, sex with a girl aged 13-16 or encouraging prostitution of a 13- to 16- year-old carries a maximum penalty of two years.

"Current maximum penalties for causing and encouraging the prostitution of girls under 16 and sexual intercourse and assault against children aged 16-18 are inadequate and need to be increased," said Mr Jarman.