Police officers in Glasgow are being investigated over allegations they were involved in a child abuse ring in 2014.
It comes after a young woman waived her right to anonymity to claim that she recognised an officer who sexually abused her as a child, because he was the same man who sometimes picked her up and took her home when she went missing.
Toni Louise came forward as part of an investigation by Sky News that found a 'huge gulf' between the number of children referred for help as victims of modern slavery, compared to the number of attempted prosecutions for the crime.
Toni, 22, said she was groomed and sold for sex by a man she thought was her boyfriend, and the first time he told her to have sex with another man she was 12-years-old.
From then on she claims she was sold to up to 30 men a day, including two police officers.
She told Sky News: "One day he was like 'I need you to do something for me. And well you don't really have a choice in it'.
"I was kind of like, 'I don't really want to do this'. And he was like, 'It's too late now. I've already told him that you're gonna do it'. And that was the first time that I was sold for money."
Toni Louise said she then started to go truant from school.
"At first it was only like once or twice a week that I would have to leave school. And then it got to like every day. It got to the point where I wasn't even making it up to school. He was picking me up at the end of my mum's street."
She told the news channel she was sold to up to 30 men a day, from all walks of life, including the police officers paid to keep her safe.
Challenged by Sky on how she knew they were police officers, she replied: "Because some of them were the ones that took me home, when I've been reported missing. So, I've seen them in their uniform."
She claims one officer who abused her several times over a six-month period even had a conversation with her mother in the kitchen after dropping her back home.
According to her account, the abuse was never mentioned during the car journeys.
She said: "I think work mode is different to 'I'm going to rape a child' mode like it was never acknowledged."
Toni Louise told Sky News she eventually escaped her situation, but claims when she first reported it to the police she was told: "You've got an active imagination for a wee girl haven't you?"
Initially, she did not report the allegations in relation to the police officers for fear it would not be believed.
But numerous alleged crimes against her have been logged by Glasgow police including 29 rapes. There was an investigation but, despite one person being charged, it did not reach court.
Toni Louise has now reported the alleged incidents involving police officers, and in a statement, Police Scotland said: "A new report of child exploitation involving police officers from 2014 was received by Police Scotland on 9 May 2022.
"This report is now being investigated by specialist officers from our National Sexual Crimes Unit and we are unable to comment further at this stage.
"We would like to reassure anyone who has been a victim of sexual crime that time is no bar to reporting and all allegations will be fully investigated, regardless of the identity of the perpetrator."
Sky News analysis of national data in Scotland found that in three years, 349 children have been given a "reasonable grounds" decision under the national referral mechanism (MRM) as being victims of modern slavery. Yet, data over that period shows only eight attempted prosecutions - and not one conviction.
Read the full Sky News report here.
