Under-age girls offered for sex at Barking hotel
A mother and daughter who offered an undercover reporter children as young as 13 for sex at a Barking hotel are facing jail.
Angela Martin, 46, and Natasha Martin, 24, demanded �7,000 per girl from former News of the World journalist Mazher Mahmood after he said he had a string of wealthy Arab customers visiting the UK.
Southwark Crown Court heard the pair met Mr Mahmood three times at the Premier Inn, on Highbridge Road and twice brought girls as young as 13-years-old with them.
The two women were arrested when police swooped during a meeting in March 2011 after the reporter left the room.
When Angela Martin was arrested she said: “We were going to set him up”.
The pair admitted conspiracy to steal on the grounds they intended to take the reporter’s money and run but did not intend for the young girls to engage in sexual activities with customers.
A charge of conspiracy to arrange or facilitate the prostitution of children was ordered to lie on file after the prosecution accepted their guilty plea.
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Remanding the two women on bail ahead of a sentencing hearing on December 5 Judge Martin Beddoe said:
“I seek to give no indication on the way in which you may come to be sentenced.
“It seems to me the seriousness of that which you have admitted, placing young girls in a position of jeopardy, must make it pretty much inevitable that you will be getting a custodial sentence on the next occasion.”
Angela Martin, of Harrow Road, Leytonstone, and Natasha Martin, of Victoria Road, Walthamstow, both east London, both admitted conspiracy to steal between March 16 and March 26, 2011.
