REVEALED: Shocking list of countries where child sex is legal

PAEDOPHILES are free to have sex with children in a shocking number of countries – including a staggering number in EUROPE.

   SHOCKING: The number of countries where adults can marry and sleep with children is 

   staggering

Daily Star Online can reveal perverts can legally have sex with children as young as 12 in the likes of the Philippines and Mexico.

But deliberately vague laws in other countries – such as Saudi Arabia and Yemen – put children of ANY AGE at risk of rape.

While some countries with low ages of consent have radically different cultures, religions and histories to the UK, we have uncovered 14 countries in Europe where the age of consent was just 14 – two years younger than in Britain.

Shockingly, adults can have sexual relationships with children aged 14 in Germany, Italy, Austria and Portugal.

Child protection charities alerted by the Daily Star Online warned low ages of consent and marriage are putting millions of children around the world at risk of sexual abuse, life-changing injuries – and even death – right now.

   GLOBAL: A map showing countries with a low age of consent

Paedophilia is sexual attraction to children, but different countries define childhood – and the age at which a person is old enough to consent to sex – in different ways.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child urges countries to consider a person as a child until they are 18.

But many Brits would certainly struggle to accept that anyone is physically, mentally or emotionally ready to agree to sex at 13 – which is the legal age of consent in Argentina, Japan, South Korea and Iran.

   ABUSED: 10-year-old Nojoud Ali, of Yemen, suffered sexual abuse by her 30-year-old husband

   ABUSER: Nojoud's husband Faez Ali Thameur (left) and dad Mohammed Ali Al-Ahdal

Child marriage can expose young children to rape and sex abuse.

Yemen, in the Middle East, scrapped a (rarely enforced) minimum age for marriage of 15 in 1999 – leaving adults free to marry children of any age.

The marriage can be "consummated" when the child "reaches puberty" – interpreted by religious scholars as just nine years old.

Yemeni child bride Nujood Ali hit headlines worldwide in 2008 after obtaining a divorce – aged 10 years old.

Another bride – aged just eight – wasn't so lucky. She died of internal injuries caused by sexual intercourse with a 40-year-old man after their arranged marriage in 2013.

Footage appearing to show a child bride in a white dress and veil marrying a middle aged man in Lebanon sparked international outrage this week.

   MISMATCH: A 16-year-old boy marries a young girl at a ceremony in India

Saudi Arabia has no age restriction on child marriage at all.

The Islamic Kingdom's ministry of justice suggested restricting the minimum age for marriage at 15 in 2013.

But "Grand Mufti" Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Asheikh – the country's supreme religious leader – rejected the proposal, saying marriage with younger girls was "permissible".

   PERMISSIVE: Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Asheikh, Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia