The aftermathīack in Pittsburgh things should’ve been amazing, but as mine was one of the first big cases of internet luring, society didn’t understand how it happened. They ran towards me and my dad gave me this hug that was so special, there are no words. Being finally reunited with them was incredible. I thought I’d done something wrong, that they didn’t love me anymore. I didn’t know they couldn’t get a regular flight – media attention my rescue had generated forced them to take an FBI plane the next day instead. I sat up all night waiting for my parents. That evening I was taken to a wonderful foster family. It made me realise that what I went through happens to kids younger than me, even babies. Using the IP address they tracked me down.Īt the hospital and police station I was so traumatised I could hardly speak, but I do remember seeing a dolls’ house after a forensic examination. When one of the guys realised he could be implicated as an accomplice, he called the police. My abductor had tripped up after livestreaming a video of him abusing me to a group online. The relief, after being imprisoned for four days, was unbelievable. I was ordered out naked to the barrel of a gun, I thought I was going to die, then I saw FBI – the three most beautiful letters – on his jacket. Suddenly there was crashing and banging, and men shouting, ‘We have guns!’ The chain allowed me to move around the room, so thinking he’d sent them to kill me, I hid under the bed. I pictured him waiting behind the door and panicked that any noise I made would prompt him to kill me on the spot. The truth is, I wasn’t sure he’d even gone. People ask why I didn’t scream when he left. How could I escape? I was just 13 years old and 6 stone, he was over 21 stone. Lying on the floor naked, weeping, I felt pure despair. I fantasised about mum and dad bursting through the door, but on the fourth day, before he left for work, he said, ‘I’m beginning to like you too much, tonight we’re going for a ride.’ I fully expected him to kill me on his return. I did it because I wanted to live and hoped people might be looking for me. I did whatever I had to do to survive, no matter how humiliating, painful, or disgusting. In the four days that followed I was chained up, raped, beaten and tortured. I know I could regain memories through hypnosis, but why would I want to? I felt the pain of him ripping my hair – I had braids from a family holiday in the Caribbean, so he pulled them at the roots. Up in his bedroom I was chained to the floor. ‘It’s OK to cry,’ he said coldly, ‘this is going to be hard for you.’Īgain, the details are a blur, but I remember him removing my clothes, locking a dog collar around my neck and dragging me upstairs. Pulling me down a flight of steps, we ended up in a basement full of strange devices, including a cage. He’d taken me from my safe, warm home in Pittsburgh to an unfamiliar place in Virginia. The next part is a blank, but suddenly I was trapped in a car and I couldn’t get out.Īfter a terrifying five-hour journey, we arrived at his house. My intuition told me to go home, but it was eight months too late.Īs I turned, I heard my name being called. At 7pm, I nipped outside in the cold without a coat. It was New Year’s Day 2002 that I’d secretly arranged to meet him.Īfter dinner, I said I had a stomach ache and left the table. Soon I was spending hours online oblivious to the danger ahead. He always listened and said what I wanted to hear: ‘Your teacher is stupid,’ or, ‘Why tidy your room when it’s your mum’s job?’ Back then, of course, as far as I was concerned he was just this boy into the Spice Girls and Titanic, like me. Now I refuse to use his name, he is a monster to me. I had no reason to believe it would lead to the most traumatic experience of my life.Ĭhatting to friends and then friends of friends is how I met ‘him’. Tapping away in my living room, my mum nearby, I felt incredibly safe. It wasn’t until I started using online chatrooms with friends that I found a confidence I didn’t have before. Up until this point I’d been a typically shy, quiet 13-year-old girl. I faced the real possibility I was going to die. ‘Be good, be quiet!’ He told me the boot had been cleaned out for me, so I was terrified. Sitting in a car as it hurtled through the freezing night, my heart pounded in my chest.īreaking the silence, the stranger beside me barked.
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