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Child sex slaves are being sold to paedophiles all over the country, a police chief claimed today.

Thames Valley Police Chief Constable Sara Thornton said officers identified networks of vile perverts operating between different cities and towns as part of Operation Bullfinch, |a probe by her force that netted seven men from Oxford who abused, trafficked and sold vulnerable girls as young as 11.

She said: “We know from some of the Bullfinch evidence they were taking girls to Birmingham and London, so we know there are links.

"What we don’t know is the nature of those links.”

Bullfinch chief investigator Simon Morton also warned: “If it happens in Oxford, I can’t imagine a city it wouldn’t happen in.”

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The gang was convicted this week but the force is under pressure for failing to stop the paedophile ring despite victims making complaints to officers years earlier.

Thames valley crime commissioner Anthony Stansfield called for a public inquiry.

“This needs to be from the NHS’s point of view, the school’s point of view, the police and also the prosecution service and criminal justice system,” he said.

Speaking in New York, PM David Cameron added: “Everyone’s going to have to ask some very searching questions about how this was allowed to continue for so long.”