Colombian woman held for selling daughters' virginity

A Colombian woman has been arrested for selling her 12 daughters' virginity for 125 pounds (about $200) each, police said.

Margarita de Jesus Zapata Moreno, 45, was detained in Bogota earlier this week after one of her girls, now 16 and pregnant, approached the police, the Daily Mail reported.

The teenaged girl reportedly turned furious after her mother asked her to abort the child.

Tito Cornelio Daza, 51, reportedly the biological father of the girl's baby, was also arrested.

A TV report said that Moreno, who has 14 children in all, would sell their virginity once they turned 12. She would then allegedly force them to prostitute themselves to pay the bills.

"The mother contacted highly solvent but depraved men so they could have sex with the minors when they turned 12," Carlos Melendez, a police official investigating the case, said.

Moreno, who has denied the allegations, faces 10 years in prison if convicted. She currently remains at Colombia's El Buen Pastro prison while Daza is being held at Modelo prison.

Both are accused of carnal abuse of a minor under 14 years of age and of forcing her into prostitution.