Hundreds of young girls enter the world of child prostitution in Bari by posting adverts on adult dating sites. The investigation into the exploitation of prostitution of underage girls in the Bari area is expanding, which had led to the arrest of 8 people.
Hundreds of girls in Bari enter the world of child prostitution by posting adverts on dating sites. This is what emerges from the investigation that began afterwards a mother’s complaint who told the police that her 16-year-old daughter had thousands of euros in cash in her bag.
An investigation was born from that complaint had led to the arrest of 8 people and the dismantling of a system that saw adult men (mostly local entrepreneurs and lawyers) pay underage girls with envelopes of 400 or 500 euros per meeting.
With the developments of the investigation, however, a broader system has emerged: there are hundreds of girls who publish adverts on dating sites bypassing the rules of these sites which are open only to an audience of adults. The system, according to what he reports The Republic, is actually elementary: just sign up with an adult friend to the sites in question and place an advert through her account. This is also how some minors acted in the prostitution ring busted a few days ago in Bari.
Child prostitution in Bari, 16-year-olds also blackmailed with photos: “I wish it had never happened”
The students posted photos online through the account of an adult, describing themselves as a “very young lesbian couple aged 18 and 23” and listing services and fees. According to those investigating, In most cases, the girls’ true age was revealed to customers. In fact, those who exploited them knew that their minor age was an “added value” to the business.
Most of the customers were between 30 and 50 years old according to what the girls said. In their testimonies, the teenagers mentioned other minors. “I saw many of them in the B&Bs they took me to – said a 16 year old – but I don’t know their names”. Confirmation of this circumstance also came from one of the men arrested by the police following the investigation. The man had revealed to the father of one of the girls involved that in the hotel in question “only minors were prostituted”. In front of the investigating judge, the same man admitted having had sexual relations with minors “but consensual” and “without any compensation.”
The reports of the teenage victims of the ring, however, tell a completely different story. The girls involved in prostitution were all born and raised in Bari and some of them still attend school. After a mother’s complaint and the arrest of those who were blackmailing them, they tried to return to their life as teenagers, even if the investigation and arrest of many people, including exploiters and clients, “hindered” their return to normality.
The girls said that “precautions” were used even for contacts with customers: the teenagers had to buy 5 euro cards which were registered in the name of foreign persons. To convince them to prostitute themselves, the adults showed them how much money they could earn in a short time. “They showed me the earnings of just one evening. They showed me that for one evening they brought home 1,000 euros, while I only had the 50 euro note that my father gave me” said one of the victims.
The money obtained from the prostitution ring, he began to spend in discos, dinners and clubs. “Never shoes or bags – she explained – otherwise my parents would have become suspicious.”
