June 2009

Woman who lured child into prostitution will not be sent back to jail

A FEMALE pimp arrested two years ago for forcing a child into prostitution will not be put back behind bars for breaking the rules of the sex offenders’ register.

Gemma Barton, aged 24, appeared at Warrington Crown Court on Tuesday after she was caught by police in a homeless hostel in Warrington on April 9.

Peter Frost, prosecuting, said she had sparked a police hunt after ‘disappearing off the radar’ for two weeks when she failed to notify authorities where she was living after leaving a hostel for single women in Liverpool in March.

The court heard she had been living there after her release from jail last October, for breaching a 12-month suspended prison sentence following her arrest for causing a child to engage in prostitution.

Barton, a drug addict and former prostitute, had admitted her role in luring the 12-year-old into a life of drugs and illegal sex at Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester in November 2007.The Manchester court heard the Oldham girl had sex with more than 300 men over two years after she was introduced to crack and heroin by Barton.

Barton, then a homeless teenage prostitute, took money from the girl for setting up her liaisons but was described as vulnerable having suffered abuse and being taken into care when she was 14.

As part of her punishment Barton, formerly of Oldham, was ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.

Mr Frost added: “She admitted failing to notify the authorities and indicated the route of her problem lay within drug use.”

Michael Hopkinson, defending, said her boyfriend was now willing to let her live with him in Birkenhead.

Judge Thomas Teague QC told the former pimp, who had already spent six weeks in custody, she had paid her dues.