A pimp who launched the careers of a string of teenage prostitutes in Paddington has been jailed for 10 years. Fiona Walsh, 32, from Third Avenue, West Kilburn, lured vulnerable girls as young as 12 off the streets with crack cocaine, Inner

Jonny Weeks

A pimp who "launched the careers" of a string of teenage prostitutes in Paddington has been jailed for 10 years.

Fiona Walsh, 32, from Third Avenue, West Kilburn, lured vulnerable girls as young as 12 off the streets with crack cocaine, Inner London Crown Court heard.

She encouraged them to have sex with clients at her home, in the back streets of Paddington and in local hotels - offering one of the girls £125 to perform oral sex on a client.

Five girls initially came forward to police and charges were pressed in relation to two girls, aged 12 and 15 at the time of the offences.

The girls were both from 'unstable' backgrounds and cannot be named.

Sentencing, His Honour Judge Roger Chapple said: "(Girl A) was only 12 when she had the misfortune to meet you.

"You started her upon a wretched downward spiral of drugs and prostitution.

"You took gross advantage of her by supplying her with drugs. You of all people should know the pernicious effect of Class A drugs.

"You launched her career. You crushed whatever hope there may have been for her to lead a happy and fulfilled life."

Earlier, Joanna Korner QC, prosecuting, told the court how Walsh had "cynically and cold-bloodedly befriended" both girls for her own benefit.

She described the girls as "easy meat" because they came from dysfunctional backgrounds and gave details of a string of incidents when the girls were forced to prostitute themselves in order to fund their spiralling drug addictions.

"According to (girl A), Fiona supplied her with crack within two weeks of meeting her," said Ms Korner.

"(Girl A) described one incident in 2005 when she had absconded from the care of social services and she met Fiona outside the Monkey Puzzle pub in Sussex Gardens. Fiona sent her to Normandie Hotel with a client and she received £90."

Walsh also offered girl B £125 to have oral sex with a punter in a backstreet.

And, on another occasion when she refused to prostitute herself with two men, Walsh pushed her into a bathroom in a flat yelling: "I don't get it for nothing, neither do you. You're going to have to sleep with them both."

Ms Korner said Walsh had controlled girl A for more than two years from Christmas of 2003 and girl B for one month in May 2003.

Girl B is now aged 19 and in a stable relationship with two children. Girl A's life may have been ruined forever, the court heard.

Walsh was arrested in March 2006 and later admitted her guilt on a string of charges. Her sentence includes three years for conspiracy to supply heroin to prisoners in Holloway while she was on remand.

jonny.weeks@hamhigh.co.ukv