E374 - Case 323: The GPO Girl

*** Content warnings: Sexual assault, child abuse, child sexual abuse ***

On Thursday, October 10 2013, passersby noticed a distraught-looking teenage girl, crying and shivering outside of Dublin’s General Post Office building. When police officers approached the girl, she either couldn’t, or wouldn’t, talk. The mystery teenager – soon dubbed the GPO girl – was taken into care, and experts suspected that she was a victim of sex trafficking.

When attempts to identify the GPO girl failed, Irish investigators went public with the case, not realising they were just dealing with just the tip of the iceberg in a...