PROSTITUTE, 14, `OVERDOSES' ON COCAINE WHILE IN CUSTODY

Teen in hospital, Ecker demands report on incident

A 14-year-old girl arrested in a Toronto prostitution ring is in hospital
today after claiming she overdosed on cocaine while in custody.

Social Services Minister Janet Ecker has asked for a full report on the
incident.

The girl, known on the streets as Kimberly, appeared briefly in juvenile
court Wednesday before returning to the York Detention Centre, where she
was being held on a breach of probation.

Police said the girl reported she had overdosed on cocaine and was taken to
the Hospital for Sick Children before her scheduled court appearance
yesterday morning.

Her condition was non life-threatening, detectives with Toronto's juvenile
task force said last night.

Kimberly's court appearance has been put over until Monday.

``It's always tragic when a young person falls into circumstances like
this,'' Ecker said yesterday. ``It just reinforces for all of us, whatever
you think you're doing, there are still going to be people who fall through
the cracks.''

Ecker said policies are in place to confiscate items such as drugs and
weapons before juveniles are detained.

``If someone's fallen down on the job, I want to know,'' she said.

Michele Anderson, a supervisor of outreach services at Covenant House, who
works with young prostitutes, was angered and saddened by Kimberly's story.

``I feel badly because I think the system has really failed her,'' Anderson
said. ``The situation with Kimberly shows the incredible need we have for
safe houses.

``She has constantly been victimized and she's being treated like a
criminal.''

Police said Kimberly began selling sex on the streets when she was just 11,
after moving to Toronto from a small town in southern Ontario.

She was detained this week for breach of probation after a brothel in North
York was raided Saturday night.

``If you're in the (sex trade) field long enough, by the time you're 14 or
15 years old, your whole perspective on life is warped . . . It's almost
like battle fatigue. They're shellshocked and numb,'' Anderson said.

She said, in the nine years she has worked with underage prostitutes, she
has continually watched as the issue was ``swept under the rug.''

In the past year, workers have watched prostitution move off the streets
and inside to escort services, she said.

``We know of houses in residential areas operating now, and we can't reach
those girls. People always think they're adults plying their trade, but in
our experience they are mainly children.''

Although no specific statistics are kept on how many girls work as
prostitutes in Toronto, police estimate they encounter close to 100 girls
each year under the age of 16, and between 200 to 300 who are 16 to 18.

These numbers do not reflect the girls working for escort services or in
clubs.

Last spring, Sudbury Liberal MPP Rick Bartolucci introduced a private
member's bill called ``protection of children involved in prostitution act.''

His bill called for giving police the power to apprehend a person under the
age of 18 involved in prostitution and take them to a safe house.

The bill died before the Legislature prorogued in December and Bartolucci
hasn't decided whether he'll reintroduce it.

A similar law did come into effect on Feb. 1 in Alberta. It gives police
and child-care workers the power to pull underage prostitutes off the
streets for three days, with or without their consent.

A Sudbury father of four said he was desperate when his 16-year-old
daughter began working the streets.

``As soon as your child turns 16, she's being treated in a way where we
couldn't jump in and help,'' the 50-year-old man said yesterday in a phone
interview.

His daughter was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in her teens and quickly
fell out of her parents' grasp when she became a prostitute.

On the streets she became addicted to alcohol and cocaine.

At 19, she's still not completely out of the prostitution ring, he said.