The distraught 50-year-old, who we will call Lesley, said the family had been through "a living hell" over recent months after her 14-year-old became a target for sexual exploitation.

While she is still unsure whether her daughter was actually sexually abused by the men, the experience has left the girl and her family emotionally scarred.

The Express has revealed how young girls in Burnley are being sexually exploited by men who ply them with drink and drugs and give them lavish gifts and rides in fast cars.

For Lesley the nightmare began when she noticed a change in her daughter's moods and that she was spending hours on social networking site Facebook chatting to "friends", many of whom were older men of Asian heritage.

Things came to a head when Lesley's daughter and friends were given so much drink, and possibly drugs, they had no recollection of what had happened to them.

Lesley said she hopes the family and representatives from Operation Freedom, a multi-agency taskforce to help victims of sexual exploitation, intervened in time to save her daughter from a more dangerous situation.

"We just pulled them back from the brink. You just feel like you are living your worst nightmare and you are not that person. You can't believe it is happening to your family. You can't function or do what you are supposed to be doing and normal everyday worries just fade into the background.

"The children involved can't see what damage is being done but it is like they are being brainwashed by these people. My daughter couldn't see she was being targeted and that is the really frightening bit.

"As soon as one of these men gets hold of your child's phone number it gets passed around to others. They are targeting very, very vulnerable girls and the men aren't always that much older, sometimes 18 or 21.

"My daughter has been brought up correctly and properly and knows right from wrong but for some reason these men twist their minds and this has a lot to do with social networking sites. They are not policed but I think they should be. I don't care about people's privacy. If you can't do things in your everyday life you shouldn't be able to do it in a virtual world."

She begged parents to seek professional help if they suspect their child is being sexually exploited. "You really need help. No parent will be able to deal with this on their own as I found out. To see your own daughter being spirited away from you is horrific. If people don't speak out about this it's just going to carry on. People have to stand up and be counted."