Brianna was just nine when her school janitor kidnapped her in New York and then sold her to a pimp.
The North Bronx girl’s tormentor locked her in a closet, letting her out only to sexually abuse her. She was enslaved in a home without lights and running water, her bed infested with bedbugs.
“I was beaten, abused, raped repeatedly and forced to give my body to strangers of all ages, in any which way they desired,” said Brianna, who’s real name has been withheld.
Now 18 and poised to graduate high school, the Bronxite was among eight sex trafficking survivors who traveled to Albany Tuesday to share their stories with legislators.
Brianna is part of the New York State Anti-Trafficking Coalition, which is lobbying state lawmakers to pass the Trafficking Victims Protection and Justice Act. If passed into law, the bill would toughen penalties against the pimps and the men who pay for sex by making it a B felony.
“It wasn’t just the pimps who caused me suffering,” she said. “It was the men who bought me. Their money determined whether I was beaten or allowed to eat that night.”
The proposed law includes provisions that would make it easier for authorities to build cases against abusers, said Lauren Hersh, a former prosecutor who is now director of anti trafficking policy and advocacy for Sanctuary for Families, an advocate for sex trafficking and domestic violence victims.
“Law enforcement urgently needs better tools to ensure that traffickers and buyers who fuel this criminal enterprise are held accountable,” Hersh said. “Those who are being exploited right now cannot wait another day.”
State Sen. Andrew Lanza — who co-wrote the bill with Assemblywoman Amy Paulin last year — said the recent kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian school girls has heightened the public’s awareness of human trafficking.
“Everyone wants to do something for those girls,” Sen. Lanza said. “We want to do something for our girls here.”
The legislators later passed a resolution memorializing May 13 Human Trafficking Awareness Day in the state.
Law student “Sarah,” 24, a New York woman who was forced into prostitution at age 13 and held captive until she was 21, said she hopes lawmakers approve the bill.
“I think if they lived one hour in the life [I lived], they wouldn’t be able to turn away,” she said.
The young woman said that although her pimp was arrested, he wasn’t punished and is still on the streets.
“He was let out on a technicality,” she said. “If people understood trafficking, this wouldn’t happen. ”