CHILD sexual exploitation can happen anywhere and to anyone, that is the message from Gwent services to mark the national child sexual exploitation awareness day.

Child sexual exploitation (CSE) is a form of sexual abuse that involves the manipulation and/or coercion of young people under the age of 18 into sexual activity. Members of the Gwent's Missing Children hub which includes Gwent Police's child exploitation service, Aneurin Bevan Health Board as well as social workers and education workers have been training residential care workers, hotel workers and taxi drivers on how to spot the signs of child exploitation.

The team use a Barnardo's, the children's charity, designed risk assessment form in which they look at the vulnerabilities and potential risk.

These include staying out late, multiple callers, older 'boyfriend' or controlling adult, periods of going missing and entering vehicles of unknown adults.

Kerry Wade, services manager of the Gwent Missing Children's team, said the number of children who were assessed at risk due to missing behaviour in Gwent last year was 1,400. She said in Gwent statistics show 15 per cent of all missing children in Gwent are exploited.

She said: "There is no typical perpetrator or victim. No one is immune - we've had children from poorer backgrounds to wealthier backgrounds.

"Child sexual exploitation doesn't discriminate - there is the potential that it could happen to anyone."

She said: "If you see something say something. If you've got a gut feeling and haven't got anything tangible you have to go with your gut feeling and tell us about it."

She said there has been a massive improvement in the past five years to tackling CSE as all services are sharing information.

She said while the internet and social media are a way in which perpetrators contact their victims a higher percentage are contacted face to face. She said it usually takes only three meetings between the perpetrator and victim.

Detective inspector Matthew Sedgebeer who works in the public protection unit has been leading a team which have been tackling child sexual exploitation in Gwent. He said based on current information the typical victims in Gwent are girls between 15 and 16-years-old as they make up 81 per cent of CSE victims in Gwent.

A high number of victims (75 per cent) are excluded from school or play truant, 77 per cent display expressions of despair including self harming and overdoses and 52 per cent misuse alcohol.

One of the other indicators to look out for is unexplained gifts including money and clothes - currently this is true of 32 per cent of CSE victims in Gwent. Other indicators include 31 per cent who are seen entering or leaving vehicles driven by unknown adults.

He said: "We can all learn lessons from thing happened in Rotherham and other big cases. There is nothing to suggest that we've got something similar here at the moment however we are very conscious that it is an underground activity and something we need to actively investigate.”

Both DI Sedgbeer and Ms Wade said the number of male victims of CSE is likely to be underrepresented in statistics as less come forward.

DI Sedgbeer said: "No one wants to be put through the court arena, have that exposed to their friends and social groups. There is a stigma attached to it, more so for males as we see much less reporting and intelligence coming through from them. Because it’s a horrible thing to go through in the first place and to relive it again in a court process is very difficult thing.

"For those young people, for them going through that if they are strong enough to go through the judicial system it prevents others from being victims as well."

He said if a child is in imminent risk people should ring 999 and should call 101 or crimestoppers with concerns.

For more information on the Missing Children’s Team visit www.breaking thecycle.org.uk or phone 01495 745600.