A DRUGS worker who has helped six Swindon child prostitutes in the past year has warned parents "Your daughter could be next".

At the annual meeting of Druglink, an organisation which helps people addicted to drugs, project manager Glenys Armstrong told how she has helped six girls aged between 14 and 17 years old, who were selling their bodies to pay for a drug habit.

A video played at the meeting, on Wednesday, July 5, which painted a disturbing picture of a teenage girl descending into prostitution, left its audience stunned into silence.

For many, it was a truth made all the more horrible when Mrs Armstrong told them child prostitution is something which can be seen all over the country and something she herself has seen in Swindon.

She said: We have seen a fall in the number of new users coming to us for help.

But the worrying trend is that the new users seem to be getting younger and younger. We see people as young as 12 and 13 experimenting with drugs, and children who are 14-years-old injecting drugs.

These are children and they are particularly vulnerable. They can easily be made to exchange sexual services for their drugs."

Barnado's worker Sara Swann, who was also at the meeting, said: The video shows a story played by actors, but it is a very typical scene being played out all over the country."

The girls are so impressionable, the age that many of them are at is difficult enough, to go through something like this can damage them emotionally forever.

In many cases the girls are desperate to go back to their old lives but they feel they will be blamed for what has happened which can make it very difficult to go back, she explained.

Mrs Swann said it was almost impossible to estimate the numbers of young prostitutes in Swindon, but said a 'fair guess' could be up to 100.

She said: I was here in Swindon five years ago and the kind thing I see now is that people are beginning to face the problem."