An organised network of sexual predators is targeting vulnerable children and runaways in Dundee to exploit for sex and profit.
Children’s charity Barnardo’s also said that more than half of all children who are sexually exploited have run away from home.
The charity has projects in Dundee, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh to protect children at risk from such abuse.
Martin Crewe, director of Barnardo’s Scotland, said children are manipulated into relationships, cut off from their families and then forced into prostitution.
“We have been working in Dundee for nine years and people are not always keen to surface this as an issue but we know it is organised,” Mr Crewe said.
“We know because when we speak to young people they know each other. It is not just men exploiting children randomly.
“What often happens is there may be a fairly vulnerable youngster who comes to light. It may be that they are in a fairly obviously vulnerable position, living on the street, but this can also be done through friends or, in one case I’m aware of, if a children’s residential home is well known, people will actively try to develop links with it.
“The likelihood is some of those people won’t have a record.”
Although it is unknown how many of Scotland’s 9000 runaways each year fall victim to sexual exploitation, he said a clear pattern is emerging of how children are manoeuvred into the sex trade.
The charity worked with 33 children in Dundee at risk of sexual exploitation last year.
“It is not necessarily always the case but the pattern we see fairly often is a young girl in her early teens gets involved with an older boy-friend who showers them with gifts.
“The girl doesn’t see that as exploitation at the time but the boyfriend then encourages her to cut off her family and friends then, once she is dependent, they will introduce drugs, alcohol or violence,” he said.