Leading children's charities are calling for improved support services for abused children faced with the trauma of going to court as witnesses.

Several charities, including Barnardo's and Childline, NCH and the NSPCC have joined Victim Support to lobby the Home Office for more support to help youngsters overcome nerves before giving evidence.

The charities complain that too often they find out about the cases at the last minute and cannot offer detailed help to victims and witnesses.

They are also calling for more funding so that they can recruit and train more witness service volunteers.

Meanwhile the European Parliament this week passed a resolution for mandatory rehabilitation and compensation to victims and witnesses of sexual exploitation cases.

MEPs also recommended minimum eight-year prison sentences for those who sexually exploit children under the age of 16, four years for people who sexually exploit teenagers between the ages of 16 and 18 and minimum one-year jail terms for people who buy, sell or trade child pornography.

They overwhelmingly endorsed the move to set up EU-wide cooperation against the sexual exploitation of children including a public registry identifying paedophiles and sex offenders, available to all EU nations and police forces.