Police swoop on paedophile gang

03-26-2012 • http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Dozens of vulnerable girls were bought and sold for sex by paedophiles running a modern-day slavery ring, police revealed yesterday.

Many of the 24 victims – some as young as 11 – were groomed, drugged and routinely raped over six years.

Council chiefs last night faced calls to set up an inquiry after it emerged that all the girls involved were known to social services or had been in their care.

The shocking scale of abuse in the affluent university city of Oxford was revealed after police arrested 13 men on suspicion of a variety of offences, including causing the prostitution of females under the age of 18, trafficking and rape.

Police are investigating the theory that the paedophile gang used social networking sites to swap information about victims, who in some cases were ‘conveyed’ to other parts of the country for sex.