Child welfare experts believe proposed new sex laws could combat child prostitution in Bradford which has seen girls as young as 11 exploited and abused.

Speaking at conference designed to tackle the problem, they said the new Government legislation could see 'punters' who used under 16-year-olds jailed for ten years.

Yesterday's Kids For Sale event, organised by the NSPCC, saw police officers, welfare workers, social services and other agencies sharing their knowledge on the alarming phenomenon.

One key speaker was Sara Swann MBE, who launched Bradford's Street and Lanes project in 1995 to tackle child prostitution in the city.

She said: "If this legislation is introduced without being watered down then it could make a really big impact."

Mrs Swann said the threat of long jail sentences would help remove the demand for pimps to sell sex with children.

"At the moment, if you have someone paying for sex with a 14-year-old girl on the street then they are thought of as 'a bit of lad' and not as a sex offender.

"But if they were propositioning 14-year-old girls outside a school then they would be viewed as a paedophile."

She said she had dealt with one girl forced into prostitution in Bradford aged just 11.

Vulnerable girls were often approached by older pimps who initially treated them as their girlfriends, said Mrs Swann.

But once they had won their confidence, these men would coerce, threaten and assault the youngsters into working as prostitutes.

"There was a 15-year-old who was so badly infected by sexually transmitted disease that she would never be able to conceive," said Mrs Swann.

"I also dealt with one 14-year-old girl who had been burned with cigarettes and raped by her pimp and three of his mates because she had hidden £10 from him in a shoe.