A PRIVATE detective from Pendle has launched a new charity to track down suspected human traffickers.

Rebecca Jane, from Barrowford, set up the Lady Detective Agency in 2009 to catch adulterous partners after she was cheated on by her own husband.

Now the business’s charitable arm, Stopping Traffic, has pledged to tackle child abduction across the globe.

The agency, which has offices in Manchester, London and Orlando, has been helping parents locate missing children for the past two years.

Rebecca, whose firm started out with offices in Burnley and Clitheroe, said: “People who have been trafficked can’t ask us for help.

“We must take a proactive approach to go out, find them and bring them back.

“We have joined forces with our investigators all over the world, all of which are willing to work for free to solve this problem.

“Our agency was created to help people. Initially it was people with cheating partners, and that will always be an element of our work.

“Money makes the world go round, but sometimes there are more important situations.We've devoted a significant amount of our time over the last few years to child abduction, and to help work within human trafficking is only a natural progression for us.”

The company has 15 UK-based staff and a string of female-only detectives working worldwide.

Rebecca added: “We're not a vigilante group, but we do whatever it takes to solve a problem.

“If we need to lure a paedophile or trafficker by way of one of our online honey traps, we have no problem in doing so.

“We're an agency which gets stuck in, and that is what we will do depending on the case. We’re thoroughly committed to ending human trafficking.”