Aged only 19, Sarah Forsyth travelled to Amsterdam on the promise of a job as a nursery nurse — and instead was abducted at gunpoint and sold as a sex slave. Every night when Sarah closes her eyes the memories of those days in the notorious red light district play out like scenes in a horror film. And she always sees the same face first — that of a trembling young girl from Thailand. I wanted to scream but although my mouth opened my throat was constricted with terror. I see again the look of uncomprehending panic in her eyes as the man raises the gun and the sticky, warm bit of flesh and bone explode from her shoulders as the bullet tears into her head.
Sarah would later give evidence against her captors. Within weeks he had forced her to work in a brothel. That Sarah was dead and gone, smothered by the shame of the new Sarah I was becoming — Sarah the hooker. A month later, Reece sold Sarah to a notorious Yugoslavian pimp who kept her in a house full of dogs and expected her to see 18 men a night. Sarah knew she had to escape after one of her pimps, known only as Gregor, told her the murder of the Thai girl she saw was part of a snuff porn movie plot.
Snuff — a film apparently showing the death of a participant in a sex scenario — is often dismissed as an urban myth. But Sarah learned the horrifying truth. No get enough money. Now I sell tape for millions. That way she earn money for me. You work hard, or same for you. Dutch police tracking the gangs approached her several times before she finally made a run for it in Sarah was taken to Belgium in hiding before returning to her home town of Gateshead, Tyneside, for a reunion with her devastated mum.
She put her arms around me and held me and for the first time I could remember I felt completely safe and happy. I just wanted my mum, and to stay like that for ever. The pair of us cried and cried. She also gave evidence against her original captor John Reece when he was tried at Leicester crown court.
In he was found guilty of two counts of causing prostitution and one of living off immoral earnings but got just two years behind bars. Sarah struggled to pick up the pieces of her shattered life and battled with drug addiction for a decade as she tried to drown out the horrific memories. I got away. By Geraldine McKelvie. Sarah Forsyth, now 42, is one of thousands of British women forced into the sex trade every day Get the biggest daily news stories by email Subscribe We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters.
