Former Child Sex Trafficking Victim Now An Advocate To Help Girls Escape Abuse
ANAHEIM (CBSLA.com) — Oree Freeman was 11 years old when she was forced into the child sex trade in Orange County.
Now, at age 20, she' s speaking out to help other girls escape abuse.
Freeman's story shows just how quickly children from disadvantaged backgrounds can be taken into a criminal sex trafficking underworld that exists just down the street from Disneyland.
Freeman shared her story with KCAL9's Stacey Butler.
"It's not just a sad story behind me," Freeman said. "It's a victory. It's overcoming it."
Freeman was born to a prison inmate and was then adopted by a single mother. Her troubles began at a young age.
When she was only 9 years old, Freeman was molested and raped.
She ran away when she was 11 years old, trusting a friend to take her in.
Instead, that friend left her with a pimp who raped her immediately and then subjected her to torture and abuse over the next four years as he sold her in the child sex trade.
Freeman recalled being beaten, strangled and abandoned in a closet. Her captor even branded his name on her neck.
She tried to reach out to teachers and other adults, but couldn't find her way out of abuse.
"No one says anything 'cause it's not their problem," Freeman said.
And she was too scared to run.
"I didn't have anything else," she said. "When you have a man yelling at you, 'I will kill you,' -- and you're 11 years old -- I believed that."
Freeman finally caught a break when she was placed in a group home at age 15.
There, she met Jim Carson, program manager at Orangewood Foundation, which provides housing and other services for teenagers and young adults who are leaving foster care.
Carson said Freeman isn't alone in her struggle, and that the problem is especially pronounced in Orange County. Harbor Blvd., near Disneyland, is one such hotbed of illegal activity.
"Is the problem growing? Yes," he said.
Freeman now regularly shares her story with law enforcement and social services to provide information on how to nab those engaged in the child sex trade and get other girls to safety.
"I speak for all the girls that don't have a voice," she said.
