THE MOTHER OF the 5-year-old girl with a sectarian slogan painted on her face has been referred for prosecution.

The child was photographed with ‘KAT’ written across her forehead at a Twelfth of July party.

KAT is an abbreviation of the anti-Catholic slogan “Kill All Taigs”.

The PSNI confirmed to TheJournal.ie that a case file has been prepared and will be sent to the Public Prosecution Service in relation a 31-year-old woman.

It’s believed that the woman is the girl’s mother.

The Irish News, which first reported the story, quoted the mother from North Belfast saying that she did not paint her daughter’s head and that she was shocked when she saw it.

“A load of the kids got the paints and wrote it. They see it all the time sprayed all over the walls in the area.”

The paper reports that new pictures have now emerged appearing to show the five year old and another child having more facepaint applied to their cheeks by an unknown woman – but the children already have ‘KAT’ on their foreheads in the photos.

Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly expressed his concern for the case on Twitter.

A photo of a 5year old child with the anti Catholic slogan-KAT (Kill All Taigs) painted on her forehead shows there is still along way to go — Gerry Kelly (@GerryKellyMLA) July 14, 2014 Source: Gerry Kelly /Twitter

Alliance Party MP Naomi Long called the incident “utterly depressing and shocking”.