A MOTHER who was one of the first to speak out about sexual grooming has backed the new drive.

Mother-of-three Julie (not her real name), who highlighted her plight at the launch of the Lancashire Telegraph's Keep Them Safe campaign in 2006, told the conference she was keen to keep the issue in the public eye.

Her daughter, lured into sexual exploitation when she was just 14, is now in secure local authority care in Wales.

At the height of her problems, she went missing from home 90 times to spend time with the men.

Her mum said she was showered with expensive gifts and plied with drink and drugs before being sent home with bruises and love bites.

Julie, who set up a support group for other parents of sexually-exploited children, visits her three times a week and has started to re-build their relationship.

She said she remains "hopeful" that one day she will get her daughter back and thanked the Lancashire Telegraph for raising the profile of the issue.

She told the conference: "I think it's very important that a conference has been held to make people more aware of what is happening.

"There was nothing like this happening before.

"The Lancashire Tele-graph has played a major part in this.

It was the first newspaper to to report what was hap-pening which raised aware-ness of the problem.

"That has made people sit up and take notice of what is happening.

"Everyone needs to be made aware that it is happening in every town."