Brittany was only 18 when she boarded on a Greyhound bus and met a man who became her trafficker and also the father of her child.
She was clueless about the fact that their instant connection would end up in months of brainwashing and the man prostituting her in hotel rooms.
Brittany explains how special he made her feel and how she never wanted to leave him. She was in love with him and believed they would be together forever.
The Reality of Sex Trafficking in Louisiana Is quite Complex
A lot of US people believe that sex trafficking is something like in the Taken movie- a young woman on a trip overseas is kidnapped by a gang and then forced into it.
However, the situation in Louisiana is more complex.
According to Kendall Wolz, assistant director of the Baptist Friendship House, a shelter for victims of trafficking and homeless women with children, most of the girls they help were lured through social media or by people pretending to be their boyfriends or making false promises about music and modelling careers.
Brittany travelled with her trafficker to various cities in order to stay out of the radar of the police. However, she was arrested in California for the first time during a sting operation.
Police officers had seen her online ads and considered her a victim of underage trafficking.
After she opened the door to a ‘call’, 8 police officers swarmed inside and demanded from her to tell them where the trafficker is.
But, the girl was terrified and said nothing.
These police officers were the first ones to tell her that he’s a pimp and asked her if she knows what she’s doing. They also told her she’s being brainwashed and that he doesn’t really love her.
Brittany didn’t want to believe this and told them that this isn’t true and that he’s her boyfriend and that they love each other. She was in jail for one night.
They met back in the hotel room and fled to Dallas. He promised her things will become better, but Brittany began realizing that this story is far from fairytale.
Brittany Was Pregnant
Brittany found out she was pregnant and was very happy.
She talked with her trafficker about her desire to become a mother and start a family and he said yes to this as long as the time was right.
She believed this would make the other things stop faster and that she wouldn’t have to do them while pregnant. She still had some belief that things would become better and that they would turn into a normal family.
One night, after he punched her in the face because she disagreed with his comment to ‘get more girls’; she realized things were going to get bad.
Still, she didn’t go to the police because he made her think they were against her. She apologized to the trafficker in the room and went to sleep.
In the morning, when he went to do laundry, someone knocked on the door and it was Brittany’s real dad.
She Is Now Helping Other Women
Her parents connected her with the Purchased program in Shreveport and had a life consisting of counselling, classes, and living in a recovery room.
She realized how much she was manipulated by her trafficker with his promises of love, belonging, and safety.
Today, she’s a mom in one of the three safe houses and she’s dedicated her life to help other women to get out of this horrible life. She wants to continue being their voice and let them know life can be different and better.
Sources: