200 men pay to rape 12-yr-old, only 1 arrested

[sam]

Parents sold girl as sex slave

The parents of a Gold Coast teenager turned her into a child sex slave, hiring her out to up to 200 clients through the internet.

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/stor ... 02,00.html

The horrific crime was revealed in the Southport District Court on Friday when her parents pleaded guilty to 63 charges each for forcing their daughter into prostitution from the time she was 12.

Her ordeal ended when police were tipped off about the website and arrested her parents in October 2004.

The case, which involved Queensland police and child safety staff, has been described by the lead investigator as the worst case of child sex abuse in his 19 years as a police officer.

"This was really the most obscene breach of a parental bond that you'll ever come across," said Det-Sgt Peter Roddick of the Child and Sexual Assault Investigation Unit attached to the State Crime Operations Command.

"I'm not aware of anything like this in Australia where a child has been prostituted at least 100 times."

On Friday, the girl's mother, 42, was jailed for 13 years for crimes including five counts of raping her daughter and prostituting her. She will be eliglible for parole in 2010.

Her father, 51, was jailed for 10 years on 63 charges including indecent treatment of a child under 16 who is a lineal descendent under care. He will be eligible for parole in April.

Neither the girl, "Chloe", nor any member of her family can be identified for legal reasons.

Chloe told police her parents would often pull her from class at her Gold Coast special school to see clients, telling the school she had to attend a medical appointment.

Following the tip-off, Operation Charlie Seabreeze was launched with 15 detectives from CSAIU and the Prostitution Enforcement Taskforce. They went to Chloe's school with child safety workers and removed her from class.

Chloe was too emotional to talk but confirmed to police she was the girl on the internet site.

To flush out Chloe's parents, two detectives from the prostitution taskforce posed as customers and arranged to meet the mother.

She provided them with an address which turned out to be an illegal brothel running out of office premises in the Gold Coast suburb of Molendinar.

Her mother was arrested at the brothel and detectives found a diary of clients' first names and telephone numbers.

At the couple's Gold Coast home detectives found the pair's stash of pornography.

Chloe and her 10-year-old brother were removed from their parents' custody and went to live with their aunt and grandparents interstate.

"If you passed this family on the street, they'd look like your average middle-class Australian family, they lived an outwardly respectable lifestyle. There was nothing in the outward lifestyle that would suggest what was going on behind closed doors. Nothing at all," Sgt Roddick said.

Police were only able to charge one client as he admitted to knowing Chloe was under 16.

That client, a Brisbane primary school teacher, was charged with six counts of child sex offences relating to Chloe and 400 charges of possessing child porn. He killed himself shortly after appearing in court.

Police could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the other clients they were able to trace knew Chloe was underage.

Sgt Roddick said that in his dealings with Chloe's parents they had never shown any remorse, told them why they did it or had asked after their children.

Chloe's aunt, who wanted to be identified as "Irene", said her niece, now 16, and nephew, 14, had been "terribly damaged" by their parents.

"It was really hard when she first got here. I couldn't give her a cuddle or kiss because of what she went through," she said.

Her life is slowly returning to normal, she has formed friendshsips and hopes to go to TAFE this year.

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said in a statement yesterday it was considering whether to appeal the sentences.

Attorney-General Kerry Shine has requested a copy of the sentencing remarks and will consider them when he returns from leave tomorrow.

"I will then make a decision about whether to request advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions regarding the adequacy of the sentences and the chances of success on appeal," he said.

[resisterance]

why is her age relevant to whether the police were able to charge the other men with rape or not?

[RGM]

"Police could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the other clients they were able to trace knew Chloe was underage."

What ever happened to "ignorance is no excuse"? The simple fact of the matter is that these men raped a girl. Whether she's 12, 5, 68, or 29, they had sex with her against her will, without her consent. That they did so with or without the knowledge that she was only 12 year old--and let's be realistic here, she's 12, it's not that hard to figure it out when her parents are the ones pimping her instead of some other sleazy dirtbag--is incidental to the fact that what they did is rape. Less than 1% of the men who raped this little girl did so without any consequences. That is fucked.

[bluecoat28]

removing something I posted by accident

[MaggieH]

Yeah, I remember that story! Cellycel had posted about it on her blog.

[Cellycel]

Yeah, I read about it here first and posted it onto my blog.
I just hate this. Whoever she was, she was in my general area. It's so terrible, sad and anger-inducing.