Julia | On June 6, 2012

Today’s feature: 95p (biography) “Slave Girl: I Was an Ordinary British Girl. I Was Kidnapped and Sold into Sex Slavery. This is My Horrific True Story” by Sarah Forsyth

Born in Newcastle in 1976, from the age of three, the very people who meant to be looking after and protecting Sarah Forsyth were sexually abusing her. Somehow she managed to overcome the hurt and heartbreak of a horrific childhood, and build a new and happy life for herself as a nursery nurse. Then, one day, Sarah spotted a newspaper advert for a job in a creche in Amsterdam. Thrilled by the prospect of a fresh start away from Newcastle and all the memories it held, she eagerly signed up. But within minutes of arriving in Amsterdam her life began to fall apart. There was no creche and no job: Sarah was a victim of sex-trafficking. Fed cocaine and cannabis, and forced at gunpoint to work as a prostitute in the red light district of Amsterdam, Sarah was turned from a young innocent English girl into a desperate and terrified crack whore. Riddled with fear about what her pimps would do to her if they caught her trying to run away, it took Sarah almost a year to find the strength to fight back and escape. But, unlike many of the girls that she was forced to live and work beside, she did get away. Sarah Forsyth is a survivor. This is her heart-rending story.