A new task force has been set up by the police and a top children’s charity to combat sex fiends preying on young people across Belfast.
The new partnership has been formed by the PSNI and children’s charity Barnardo’s NI to help vulnerable young people, especially those in the care system, who have been targeted — or are at risk of being targeted — by criminals.
In an interview with the South Belfast News, Barnardo’s have revealed the worrying extent to which youngsters — particularly girls — in the care system can be targeted by sexual predators.
The charity says that children from all backgrounds, including comfortable middle-class households in South Belfast’s suburbs, are being targeted for exploitation through social networking sites by adults who are intent on sexual abuse.
“The cases we come across are simply the tip of the iceberg,” Barnardo’s project manager Jacqui Montgomery Devlin reveals in an interview that every local parent and carer should read.
