CARLY Bateman was just 15 when she was first picked up working as a prostitute.

Today the Bolton Evening News can reveal that she was just one of more than a dozen girls aged between 13 and 17 regularly selling their bodies for sex in Bolton.

But social services and the police are powerless to do anything to stop them.

A police source said: "The idea that the police and the local authority could do more to stop this happening is not true. The reality is that under the current system it is extremely difficult to do anything."

The revelations come as detectives continue to investigate the murder of Carly, aged 17, whose body found in an alleyway off Crawford Avenue, The Haulgh early on Sunday. She had been strangled.

Cllr Frank White, chairman of Bolton Prostitution Forum, said: "The system needs to be changed and we need some sort of sanction to protect the girls from themselves, but the child has rights like anyone else."

Carly was last seen alive by a police officer as she walked through Bolton town centre at about midnight on Saturday. Police are desperately trying to trace her movements after that.

DCI Tony Cook, who is leading the investigation, appealed directly to drug dealers and prostitutes who knew Carly or saw her on Saturday night to speak to the police.

He said: "There is a strong possibility that her death is related to her prostitution activities but it is also possible that it had nothing to do with it."

He has assured punters who used prostitutes in the area that they would be treated with sensitivity and in the strictest confidence.

Anyone with information is asked to call the incident room on 0161 856 5961 or the anonymous Crimestoppers hot-line on 0800 555 111.