A PROSTITUTE and businessman have both been jailed after a teenage runaway was plied with drink and sold for sex in a North-East town.

Claire Dixon, told takeaway owner, Murtadha Elasadi, the girl was 13 when she brokered the deal saying: "You probably won't get one like this again."

The girl was so drunk she vomited on Elasadi's drive before he took her to into his home in Guisborough Road, Middlesbrough, and had sex with her.

Dixon, 31, a heavily convicted prostitute, spent the money on crack cocaine, giving some to the girl, telling her it would make her "feel better".

Anthony Dunne prosecuting at Teesside Crown Court yesterday said the girl had run away to Middlesbrough, but soon went looking for help.

Mr Dunne said: "She did go to a police station to tell police that she would be reported as a missing person.

"She waited there for some period of time, but nobody spoke to her and she left." Later that day, on August 17, 2008, Dixon, of Marshall Avenue, Middlesbrough 'befriended' the girl and took her to a shop for drink.

The girl later told police she was "mortally" drunk when Dixon flagged down Elasadi's car before they drove her away and exploited her for just £40.

Christine Egerton, for Elasadi, said the 35-year-old believed the girl was a willing sex worker, but accepted that she looked 13 or 14.

She said Elasadi, who admitted sexual activity with a child, made no threats and used no force. Miss Egerton said the girl was actually 14 and once admitted to police she was "on the game", but accepted that was some time after the offence.

She said Elasadi's fiancee lived in Morocco and was unable to get to the UK for the time being. Brian Russell, for Dixon, who admitted commissioning a child for sex, said she knew the victim and had initially wanted to offer her protection.

Mr Russell said Dixon's apparent lack of remorse was because she was struggling to accept the "enormity and unpleasantness" of the situation.

Sentencing the pair to four-and-a-half years each, Judge Michael Taylor said he found the two defendants equally culpable for corrupting the girl. He said: "She had left her home and the protection of her mother and took her chances on the street.

"What she was crying out for was care and protection, not exploitation.

"Teenagers often make very poor decisions for themselves and put themselves at risk." Dixon, who has 29 convictions for 45 offences, mostly relating to prostitution, received an additional 18-months for separate drugs offences.

It was accepted she was a front of house operative for a relatively small-time heroin dealer in Middlesbrough.