Woman admits to using 12-year-old daughter as sex worker
By IANSMonday, May 10, 2010
MELBOURNE - An Australian woman Monday pleaded guilty to using her 12-year-old daughter as a sex worker.
The 41-year-old woman, who was herself sexually abused when she was a child, has admitted to being the commercial operator of a sexual services business, ABC News reported.
She broke down as the charges were read in Hobart’s Supreme Court Monday morning.
The court was told that in August last year the woman complained of not having money so she and another man, Gary John Devine, decided to use her daughter as a prostitute.
The woman paid for a hotel room where the child had sex with a significant number of men. The prostitution then continued at Devine’s home, the media report said.
The 12-year-old girl received $100 per half an hour of sex. That would come to about $2,000 a day and it was spent on drugs for herself, her mother and Devine.
Rochelle Mainwaring, the woman’s defence counsel, said that while there was no excuse for the horrendous crimes, they should be viewed in light of her client’s personal circumstances. The woman had been abused by a family member between the ages of nine and 15.
Devine was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
