Former Child Sex Slave Tells Her Story

One victim of sex trafficking, “Sarah,” as she asked to be identified, sat down with News 5’s Stephanie Stone to tell her story. Sarah admits her story is unbelievable and disturbing. She agreed to go on camera hoping to save just one more person from the horrors of human trafficking.

“People have to know that this stuff does go on. Horrible, horrible, horrible things happen to children,” she said.

Growing up, Sarah didn’t have a coloring book, a teddy bear or school pictures. She describes her childhood as tortuous.

Sarah said her first memory was a sex act. At 8 years old, she remembers her mother waking her up in the middle of the night and forcing her to meet strangers behind closed doors.

“She slammed the door, shut and locked it from the outside,” she said. “They had sex with me. Each took their turn. (I) think one of them did it twice.”

Sarah said the same nightmare would be repeated for four years, every Wednesday through Saturday. Sarah said she watched while those same men handed her mother stacks of cash.

“She come in the bedroom when the one man was done, and he handed her money,” she said.

Sarah said she sneaked out of the house once and told a friend’s parent what was happening. Sarah said a representative from social services was called, but that she was never given a medical analysis, and the social worker didn’t believe her story after her mother refuted it.

“Society believes, you know, we don’t do things like that, you know. They just don’t want to believe that something that bad happens here,” she said.

Eventually Sarah dropped out of school and fell into heavy drug use with the wrong crowd. Her peers in high school were going to proms and sports events and visiting colleges, while she was subjected to more abuse.

“Being sodomized at 13, raped at 14, raped at 15 and a half. I have a son who’s a product of rape,” she said.

Years of prostitution and a theft charge would lead her to a Hamilton County judge, who wound up saving her life by sentencing her to time served at Cincinnati Union Bethel. The shelter helps prostitutes and drug addicts reform their lives.

The shelter’s development manager, Kari Kester, said Sarah’s story is all too common.

“Prostitution and sex trafficking go hand in hand. Majority of women who are sex trafficked are trafficked into prostitution,” Kester said.

Kester also said the Tri-State is flagged as a hot spot for a number of reasons.

“Anywhere in the state of Ohio you can be out of the state in two hours,” Kester said.