Two 14 year old girls manipulated and forced into trafficking

In New Haven, CT, two 14 year old girls ran away from a state shelter. A 30 year old man and his female accomplice offered to help the girls after they ran away. Help turned into hurt as the man and woman eventually started forcing the girls to be their child sex slaves. The girls initially resisted, until the man threatened to kill them both. He personally paid for internet ads on different websites to sell the girls.

"For a few horrific days in July 2009, the defendant led two scarred, abused, and naive fourteen year-old girls, runaways from DCF shelter custody, into the commercial sex industry for his own enrichment," the prosecutor writes. "While in the defendant's mind this exploitation may be just another chapter in his life of lawlessness and amorality, his victims will forever wear the scar of his actions."

The woman involved was also a shelter runaway who was forced into prostitution by the man. Having a similar experience as the young girls, she knew how to manipulate the innocent victims. In addition to threatening them into child sex slavery, the pair provided drugs and alcohol before they sent them to perform sexual acts in different hotel rooms.

Source: News Times (Link)

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Parents Indicted for Trafficking Their Two Teenage Daughters

Two parents in Madison County were indicted for trafficking their 13 and 14 year old daughters. One of the girls' teachers reported them to the police after seeing them dressed inappropriately in front of a movie theater.  The incidents reportedly took place between Oct. 10, 2009, and Feb. 24, 2011.

The parents were indicted for “... arranging for their 13- and 14-year-old daughters to provide companionship and affection to male individuals in exchange for money and goods ...,” the indictment reads.

The girls were interviewed by a police officer during an investigation. The girls told the officer that their parents seek out men in different stores to see if they are interested in companionship from their daughters. They encourage the girls to touch and kiss the men so they will get more money. The men also would take photos of them “with their clothes partially off,” Boyle testified.

The older girl, age 14, said one of the men who came to their home sexually assaulted her as her mother watched, Boyle said. The younger girl then attempted to come to her sister’s aid.The couple Madison County Detention Center Thursday without bond.

Source: The Richmond Register (Link)

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Man and Woman Busted in Sex Trafficking Ring

For any young girl,  the promise of being provided for and taken care of in a serious relationship can seem like a dream come true. This can be especially true for girls who may be dealing with difficult family circumstances, girls who may be having trouble in school, or for girls who may feel unwanted and unloved. This was the case for one young 17 year old homeless girl who was coerced into sex trafficking by a 27 year old man who promised her money and a serious relationship.

However, what this young girl did not know was that this 27 year old man was actually a violent trafficker who used these “promises” as a means to coerce his young victims into sex trafficking. For two years, this man used violence and all means of coercion to force and seduce girls between the ages of 17 and 21 into his sex trafficking ring. Once the girls had been coerced, he would use both physical and psychological abuse on his victims. He would threaten to kill their families if they did not cooperate with his demands and often threatened to beat girls who resisted. He would also go as far as requiring “his girls” to tattoo his name on their bodies as a symbol of branding and possession.

This man used a website that is well known for soliciting young girls. He advertised them as “smokin” and “hot” in order to lure men into purchasing the young girls’ services. The trafficking ring was based in Little Rock Arkansas, but the victims would often travel to different locations. In the two years of running his sex trafficking ring, he had girls in as many as 12 states across the country. 

Source: Rapid City Journal (Link)         

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Mutual Friend Abducts Girl into Sex-Trafficking

How many times have we trusted someone because they were “a friend of a friend?” How many times have we accepted a friend request on Facebook just because that person was friends with one of our friends? Although it may seem harmless to add these people because they are friends with our friends, in actuality this person may not be harmless at all and could in fact be a trafficker looking to prey on naive, young girls.

In the case of a young seventeen year old girl, she trusted someone who was a mutual friend of her friends and,  as a result, was unknowingly forced into human trafficking.This trafficker who abducted the girl was able to use his status as a “friend of a friend” to get the young girl into his car in a suburb located near Sacramento, California.

Once the girl was inside, he pulled a gun out and told her that if she tried to escape, he would kill both her and her family. The trafficker then raped the young girl, took her to a hotel, and then began soliciting her on a well known website.

The young girl was forced to engage in sex with strangers who had responded to the ads on the website. After having sold the girl to multiple strangers, the trafficker then drove her to Fremont where she was sold to two violent traffickers. Several days later, the FBI located the girl in a motel in Fremont, where it was found that the girl had been drugged and deprived of food for days. The girl’s trafficker was arrested, charged, and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Source: NBC Bay Area (Link)

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