Saturday, September 11, 2010

Sex slave case stirs horrific memories
She has forced most of their faces and names from her memory. But the emotional pain, deep and unrelenting, still lingers.

Pimped into prostitution as a young teen by a family friend and her own mother, she struggles to overcome a shattered childhood, torn from her by a countless parade of strangers. As awful as her own experience was, Shari felt sickened by the allegations that came out of federal court in Kansas City on Thursday about another young Missouri woman enslaved for years with sexual abuse and torture.

“Wow,” was Shari’s initial reaction.
“I hope she keeps her strength and courage,” added Shari, who didn’t want her last name published. “It’s going to be a difficult process for her.”

More than anyone, Shari knows that the journey from the abyss of sexual slavery is a long one. Now 23 and six years removed from the physical clutches of her abusers, she refuses to be defined by her victimhood.
In fact, she is using her experience to reach out and help others as they struggle to escape the kind of bondage inflicted on her.

“You have to do what you can to stop it from happening to other people,” she said.
That’s what she hopes the victim of Thursday’s case can take to heart.
“She’s doing something wonderful by removing these people from the public,” Shari said.
Thursday’s case accuses five men of participating in the abuse of the victim starting in late 2002, when she was a 16-year-old runaway, and continuing until last year, when she was hospitalized after an extreme torture session in a Lebanon, Mo., mobile home.

For those involved in fighting human trafficking, the new case is further evidence that the crime continues to flourish.
“It’s huge, and we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg,” said Carrie Rosetti, executive director and president of the Kansas City Alliance Against Human Trafficking.
Government officials have estimated that as many as 17,000 people a year are trafficked into the United States from other countries. They estimate that significantly more U.S. citizens are at risk of being trafficked, primarily for sex.

The Kansas City alliance started this year, born from Rosetti’s experience assisting human-trafficking victims while working at Hope House, a domestic violence shelter. Shari, who has agreed to serve on the board of the alliance, agrees with Rosetti that educating the public is a key way to combat human trafficking and help victims.

As part of that effort, Shari and her husband have started an online blog: childsexpredators.blogspot.com.
“We believe that if more people are aware these things are happening around them that people will become more involved,” they explain on the blog. “The only way we as a society are ever going to slow this kind of act down is through knowledge and education about the issue.”

Shari’s abusers used fear and coercion to try to prevent her from reporting their crimes.
“They told me I would be taken away from my family, that I would never see my mother again,” she said.
Except for attending school, she seldom was allowed to venture anywhere alone. On the rare occasions when an adult sensed that something was bothering her, she was conditioned to conceal the truth.
Her abuse began when she was 12 after she and her mother moved into the Blue Springs home of a family friend. That man engaged in violent, sadomasochistic sex with her and later watched while others did the same.

After several years, he created a website billing her as a dominatrix and sold her to paying customers.
Her mother was aware of the abuse and allowed it to continue while profiting from it.
Shari essentially was brainwashed into believing that what was happening to her was normal and OK, she said. Only as she got older did she come to realize that what was happening to her was a crime.
“They made me believe that by keeping it quiet I was protecting my family,” she said. “All it was doing was hurting me.”

At 17, she put aside her fear and ran away.

As hard as it was to do, getting out of the situation and reporting it to the authorities was “absolutely” the right decision for her and anyone else who is the victim of that kind of crime, Shari said. Her mother and the man who abused her have pleaded guilty and are serving lengthy sentences in federal prison.

“Every victim deserves to see that and to know that they’re not going to do it to somebody else,” Shari said.
The best advice that Shari can give to other victims: Do your best to seek help.

“Having other people involved in that process is a good thing,” she said. “More than anything, just be strong.”
Therapy and counseling will be a long-term part of her life, Shari knows. But though some days are worse than others, she believes in looking toward the future with optimism.
“I feel like it’s getting better,” she said.

(To reach Tony Rizzo, call 816-234-4435 or send e-mail to trizzo@kcstar.com.) Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/09/10/2214552/educating-public-is-crucial-in.html#ixzz0zHHrbeQH

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