Mum jailed for prostituting teenage daughter in Sydney

MELBOURNE - An Australian mother has landed in jail after she prostituted her teenage daughter.

A judge has described the case as ‘an extreme breach of trust’.

The girl says she was subjected to physical and mental abuse and forced to take illicit drugs while working at Sydney’s Liaisons escort agency between November 2008 and December 2009.

She was aged 16 and 17 at the time and girl’s mother has admitted changing a birth certificate so the child could work for the agency as an 18-year-old.

At Wollongong District Court today, the 43-year-old woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was sentenced to serve at least 18 months’ jail after pleading guilty to charges of obtaining a benefit from child prostitution and causing a child to participate in prostitution.

“Children have the right to the love, care and protection of their parents. Parents have an overriding responsibility to keep their children from harm’s way and to shield them from evil. The commission of these crimes by the offender involved an extreme breach of trust,” the Herald Sun quoted judge Paul Conlonas saying during the sentencing.

The judge noted that the girl showed a willingness to work, but that she found it degrading.

“The offender has given evidence in these sentence proceedings that some time ago, she herself had worked, albeit briefly, in that industry and she was fully aware that she was delivering her daughter into the hands of those who would subject her to extreme acts of degradation,” he added.

The woman was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison and has not been permitted any contact with either of her daughters since her arrest in December 2009. (ANI)