Medellin Colombia a city made famous by
one man the drug baron Pablo Escobar for over a decade he ruled these streets through extreme violence in the 90s shootings, car
bombings and random murders made it by far the most dangerous city in the world Escobar is long dead but the years of choas have left the
darkness in Medillin's soul I have been following Colombia's drug wars for 15
years that time most of the violence has moved to Mexico but this city is still suffering from
its narco legacy For years the easy cash of the drug trade has fuelled a huge sex
industry even the taxi drivers are in on i t They say here if you put a roof on Medellin it would the largest brothel in
the world this is Medellin's red-light district Daniella has been walking these streets
for five years since she was 11 Prostitution is legal here but the age
of consent is 18 But some visitors are unsatisfied with just young girls Pablo Escobar famously likes sleeping with virgins now for a premium price sex
tourists can do the same as the drug trade fell away the gangs are that controlled these barrios look for a fresh source of income this shocking new
trade means mothers all across Medellin live in fear Her daughter is just 11 years
old But her mother says the gangs already
have plans for her This is not the image of
Medellin the authorities want to promote they have spent millions cleaning up the
city attracting visitors and trying to show it has moved on from the past The mayor told me that they had reports of virgins being sold but had not
investigated – so local people have taken matters into their own hands this
graffiti says it is not a rumor there are buying and selling girls for sexual
exploitation 'they' means the gangs The gangs control everything in the
barrios including the trade in virgins For weeks I've been trying to persuade them
to talk they finally agreed but only if we don't reveal their identities these
men are part of the city's main gang they inherited Pablo Escobar's Empire – they control these streets – their business is drugs extortion and the sex
trade tonight they're keen to show me how easy
it is for them to find new virgins Medellin is less violent than it used to
be but still the life expectancy of these gang members is not high they feel
they have nothing to lose they spoke to young girls and start talking to them –
they invite them to a party a couple of minutes later the girls give them their
phone numbers – it was incredible to see how the gang members stopped to 14 year old girls and groomed them in ten minutes they got their phone numbers and possibly in a couple of days they will call they will take them out shopping
buy them a mobile phone in a week or two those two girls miss all those virgins
half an hour later I meet up with the gang members In these men's violent and cynical world the two young girls were nothing more than a way to
make money – I wanted to know what kind of man would come to Colombia to have sex
with girls this young Paul Brailsford is the only Britain convicted of having sex with
children here in Colombia in 2011 he was arrested in a hotel room with child
pornography and accused of sleeping with two girls aged 12 and 14 – he didn't have
a gang to groom the virgins for him he did it himself – he's now spending 20
years in prison I managed to get him to agree to an interview from inside the
jail we know the sentence and you know and the charges the were put
against against you what do you have to say about that well basically I'm still
fighting to get out I'm innocent yes you're innocent you didn't abuse oh
no no no unfortunately here there are many underage hookers yes okay and I got
caught in a sting I thought they were older yeah yeah a problem there were 12
years 12 years old one and the other one 14 and a half yeah okay both tall yeah yes tall
as you yeah very well-endowed yeah yes so you thought were they were over 18
yes I thought old enough no problem what he didn't know is that the day before I
had gone to see one of the girls he was convicted of abusing the legal
age of consent in Colombia is 18 Naomi is now 16 years old – when Paul Brailsford
slept with her she was just 12 she told me she was not a prostitute that he
groomed her after seeing her on the beach and then abused her over several
months I mean, she's 16 now and for me she doesn't look 18 – still so if I think back and three and a half years ago when she was 12 would she have looked…
