Stars lend support to child sex trafficking campaign

Stars such as Joanna Lumley and Robert Pattinson have been lending a hand to charity in a bid to stop children being exploited.

Well-known figures - who also include Sienna Miller, Jamie Oliver and JLS - have decorated their own handprints to highlight a petition calling for more to be done about child sex trafficking.

The petition has been spearheaded by retailer The Body Shop and anti-child exploitation charity Ecpat UK.

Pattinson's handprint design is a simple chubby-fingered black outline while Lumley's features vividly painted nails and an image of a bird, with the message "sweet bird, fly away".

Lumley said: "It's hard for us to comprehend what victims of child trafficking have gone through or to even believe that such a repulsive crime could ever take place here. But it does.

"Every year millions of children are trafficked around the world for sexual exploitation with children from over 50 countries arriving in the UK annually."

The petition calls for the UK Government to offer greater care and protection to child victims by providing a guardian to look after them and prevent them from further harm from their traffickers.

Children as young as 11 have been caught up in the trade and research has shown that while investigations are conducted into their cases, more than half go missing from local authority care and are never found.

More than 60 countries will be part of the Stop Sex Trafficking of Children and Young People Petition with the UK section being delivered to the Prime Minister next year.

Supporters are encouraged to sign the petition at www.thebodyshop.com/stop or at branches of The Body Shop.