A 13-year-old girl is being sexually exploited by a criminal gang and "pimped out" for prostitution, the High Court has heard.

The girl is now to be held in a special care unit for eight days following an application to the court by the Child and Family Agency (CFA).

She was described in court as a child who loved to play and "cradle and cuddle her teddy bears".

Yesterday Mr Justice Senan Allen granted the CFA an order permitting gardaí to detain her and bring her to the unit where she will receive therapeutic care.

The girl came to Ireland with her parents in 2018. She came to the attention of social services because of her parents' alcohol abuse and her father's aggressive behaviour toward her.

David Leahy BL, for the CFA, told the court that since February she had gone missing 20 times from a care home she had been placed in.

Last February, the girl's parents expressed concern to a social worker that she was being exploited by a criminal gang and was having sex with members of it. She had acquired expensive new mobile phones and money, counsel said.

It was reported that she was one of a number of girls who were "being pimped out by one" man at a certain location, counsel said.

The girl herself had denied engaging in sexual activity but said she had been offered money for sex, counsel said.

Irish Independent