Children in prostitution sweep were under Cyf care

Two girls picked up by Christchurch police in an underage prostitute sweep last week were under the care of Child Youth and Family (Cyf).

Chrischurch acting regional director Ross Haggart confirmed today the two girls, aged 12 and 14, were living in approved Cyf foster homes.

He said the girls were not under close supervision and were able to leave the homes when they wanted.

"We have a situation where they are in normal family settings and they're not blocked in...If these children have a mind...they can leave at any given time," he told National Radio.

Mr Haggart said it was not yet known whether the girls were prostituting themselves.

"They were reported missing by their caregivers and the police and Child Youth and Family worked together to try and locate these girls," he said.

"They are not criminals. We don't lock them up and we have to work with the problems and not take a punitive attitude.

"This is alleged information, we don't know that they are prostitutes."

One of the girls has now been placed in a residential facility and the other has been returned to foster care.

Police removed four under-age prostitutes from Christchurch streets last week as they began a crackdown on young sex workers.

"We are doing it for their own protection. They are subjected to not just violence, but also social diseases," Inspector Gary Knowles, of Christchurch police, said.

The concern for prostitutes had grown since the murder of prostitutes Suzie Sutherland, 36, and a 24-year-old worker who has name suppression last year.

Police have also vowed to prosecute the men who pay for under-age sex.

But a 16-year-old Christchurch prostitute, who has worked on Manchester Street since her early teens, said that would be difficult because girls often swapped phone numbers with clients so they did not have to stand on the street and the men did not risk being caught by police.

"The girls go out on the streets a few times so they can get the clients' numbers, but then the clients can call them up and arrange to meet, rather than drive up and down Manchester Street," she told the Press.

She said under-age prostitutes would not divulge their clients' details to police because the phone list was their income.

The mother of the 15-year-old prostitute said she had unsuccessfully tried everything, including informing police and Child, Youth and Family in an attempt to stop her daughter working as a prostitute.

Despite locking the girl in her room, tracking her down on Manchester Street and dragging her home, the teen persisted in escaping to work the streets, the mother told the Press.

She said she constantly told her daughter not to work as a prostitute and hammered home the dangers, including the murder of the two street-workers last year.

"She knows all the risks. She knows one of the girls who got killed, but she and the other girls who do it just see it as an easy way to make money."

Knowing her teenage daughter worked as a prostitute was a living hell.

"You lie awake praying they come home and are not going to be picked up by some freak who will hurt them."

- NZPA