A Newry teenager is selling her virginity online to raise cash for a college course, according to the Sunday Life.

The 16-year-old offered her innocence on the trading website Gumtree.

Using the come-on: “Virginity for sale,” her shocking ad — shown here — said her body was “available to the highest bidder”.

The middle-class teen is thought to be one of the youngest girls in the world to voluntarily put her purity on the market.

And she’s the first in Northern Ireland to make the offer on the web.

The former Catholic schoolgirl placed her ad just over a fortnight ago.

She later claimed that within hours, sleazebags had inundated her with big-money offers.

When Sunday Life was alerted to the ‘virgin auction’, we decided to investigate.

And when our investigation revealed the advert was genuine we decided to try and stop the teenager selling her virginity to a stranger.

Our reporter — posing as a wealthy businessman — first responded to her ad a fortnight ago.

He gave a bogus email and mobile number offering a bid of £3,000.

Minutes later, the girl went into sales overdrive in a string of brazen texts.

Her barrage of messages included the lines: “I’m 17 at the end of the month, but I look way older. I’m tallish, size 14-ish, size 36D breasts, long browny-blonde hair. I actually have three piercings.”

The teen added: “I can basically do this any Saturday. Do you want me all night? What exactly is it you wish to do?

“And by the way, I need cash in hand before the actual sex. I’m not up for getting conned. And probably gonna drink a lot before or I’ll be shy, ok?”

Sunday Life spent two weeks checking how genuine the teen’s offer was.

During that time, she calmly bombarded our reporter with dozens of texts, many of a sexual nature.

She revealed details about her family and even sent a picture of her passport to prove her age and who she was.

When our investigator asked the teen if she would meet him she pushed his offer to £6,000 — by telling him other businessmen were willing to fork out £5,000.

The girl — who we’re not identifying for ethical reasons — met our reporter just two days after he agreed to the £6,000 price-tag.

Before the meeting, we repeatedly asked her by text if she was serious about her proposal and about meeting up.

Each time she calmly replied: “There’s no way I’m gonna change my mind. It’s only you now.”

The fresh faced teen turned up alone to meet our man in the centre of Newry last week.

This was a huge risk as the man she was meeting could have been a dangerous serial sex offender or worse.

Dressed in casual clothes, she shook his hand, calmly sat down and eagerly agreed to go to a bar for a drink to discuss “details”. We secretly videoed the 35 minute chat as evidence.

She ordered a glass of water before explaining: “I used to get pocket money. It was about £10 a week, but I don’t get that anymore.

“I used to have a job in a shop and I’m going for a job interview at another store, but I don’t really want that.”

The girl had said before the meeting in a text: “To be honest...I need the money.

“I do art. Can’t afford to pay for art supplies. So I put that ad up for the highest bidder.”

She said at the meeting that after doing GCSEs at a Catholic school in Newry she started an art course.

The teen insisted she had decided to trade her virginity for an education.

She added: “This money will mean I can buy loads of supplies for my art course.

“And I’ll be able to put the rest away for university as I want to do art at uni.”

When our reporter asked the teen how he knew she was a virgin, she said: “I am. I’m not so mean to lie about that.”

Asked how she wanted to lose her virginity, the teen agreed the best idea would be to book a room at the Canal Court Hotel in the centre of Newry.

She also told us that she said her one condition was that she had to be home by 11pm.

In texts and at the end of the meeting she told us: “It should be a bit of fun.”

The teen, who turns 17 next week, even joked that she would sign a contract agreeing to turn up and sell herself.

The student walked home alone observed by a Sunday Life photographer, potentially exposing her address to a pervert.

She arranged to meet our reporter at 7pm on Saturday night.

A few hours before the scheduled meeting, she even texted: “What way you gonna give me the £6k? Coz I’m just gonna have a small bag.”

But we rang her yesterday to reveal our true identity.

After telling us to ring back, the girl, who endangered herself by meeting a man she didn’t know, later sent panicky texts claiming it was ‘a joke’.