Mum arranges sex clients for daughter

A woman who helped her teenage daughter get paid for sex used the payments for groceries and school supplies.

The Marlborough woman, who cannot be named, helped her daughter, who was aged under 18, get paid for sex on four occasions between January 1 and March 3.

She did this by messaging her contacts to arrange appointments for her daughter to meet with clients, a police summary of facts said.

On two occasions the clients visited the woman’s home, which she shared with her daughter and other children, and on two other occasions she met them at the public toilets in Brayshaw Park, in Blenheim.

The woman would stand outside the bedroom or toilet block, to ensure her daughter’s safety, the summary said.

After the daughter had been paid, she would give the money to her mother, who would use it for things such as groceries, school supplies and weekend entertainment for her children.

When spoken to by police, the woman said the messages were just a joke. She and her daughter were just seeing how far the person would take it, and nothing had ever happened involving her daughter, she said.

At the Blenheim District Court on Monday, the woman admitted a charge of assisting a person aged under 18 to provide commercial sex services.

Sex workers legally have to be aged 18 or older under the Prostitution Reform Act. Assisting a person aged under 18 to provide sexual services had a maximum penalty of seven years’ imprisonment.

Judge Tony Zohrab ordered a probation report and an alcohol and drug report, and referred the case to restorative justice.

He also granted interim name suppression, to protect the identity of the teenager.

He remanded the woman on bail to July 20 for sentencing.