Cassie's Story
When girls are trafficked or subjected to sexual violence, they are often silenced. But every day our programmatic partners like IJM support unstoppable survivors who are bravely sharing their stories so that girls around the world can live free from violence and abuse.
“I used to always tell myself that they can hurt me... But my dream, they cannot get that.” Cassie’s* eyes flash between emotions of anger and fear as she speaks. Today she is safe, but she is still haunted by memories of life in captivity. Cassie is a survivor of cybersex trafficking.
She followed a trusted family friend to Manila, 800 miles away from her childhood home that had no electricity or technology of any kind. At 12 years old, she was raped and routinely forced to perform sex acts in front of a camera for customers located all around the world.
“It was really hard,” Cassie continues, her chilling words tumbling out quickly, “I was thinking, ‘I want to die, I want to die because of this pain, but I can’t. I want to stop my breath. But, it’s always—Oh, I’m still breathing. Why can’t I die?”
No child should ever have to wish for death.
A Childhood Outside the Modern World
Cassie is the youngest of twelve siblings. She refers to her home as “the mountain.” It is a remote province in the Philippines, home to indigenous people who have their own tribal leader and customs.
“My life in the mountain was very hard,” Cassie says. Her father moved them to a city when Cassie was about 10 years old so she could go to school. It was the first time she ever saw money—there had been no currency, no electricity, no technology and no way to vote or participate in society back in the mountain. But life was still hard. “I don’t have a complete uniform, I don’t have notebook, pencil, and I don’t have shoes.”
The family used to grow all their food, but now they needed money to pay for it. Cassie helped her mother work as a maid for another family. It was here she met A.J.,* the man would make her wish for death over life.
At first A.J. seemed like a godsend from the capital city of Manila—a place none of them had ever been. He was a relative of their employer and godson of their neighbour. He told Cassie’s parents that he could give her a better future. He promised to send her to school and treat her as an adoptive daughter. Cassie’s dream of traveling to places she’d only glimpsed in pages of old books was coming true.
Many Filipinos speak of “the Manila dream.” Manila is home to about a quarter of the whole country’s population. It is a global trade center and hub for education, business and culture.
Cassie explains, “They say when you visit Manila, your life will change.”
“When first I met [A.J.], he’s telling me that Manila is very nice…I wanted to go to Manila because he told me that he could help me reach all my dreams in Manila.”
The Manila Dream
“I remember my first time in Manila. It was very happy because there’s lots of buildings. People are very free,” Cassie says. “[A.J.] starts taking care of me. I wear nice clothes, and I have nice shoes, a complete uniform in school, and I have a ball pen, a notebook and bag.”
School was finally a reality—but it soon became Cassie’s only refuge. It was the only place she felt safe. She dreaded going home to A.J.’s house. “When I go home, there is my recruiter. He is just waiting for me, because there’s customers waiting for me.”
A.J. was running a cybersex trafficking operation out of his home. And Cassie was not his only victim.
He preyed on the children of family friends and vulnerable teenage neighbours to create a fake family. He appeared to neighbours as a benevolent father-figure, sending the children to good schools and posting photos of pool parties and vacations on Facebook.
“When we are in the house of my recruiter, we can’t talk to anybody and we are very scared. It’s like no one can believe us. Because everyone [thinks] that I’m the daughter of my recruiter. And my recruiter is very kind.”
His home in a low socioeconomic neighbourhood became a hotspot in a global network of online predators, pedophiles and sex addicts. This is the disturbing reality of cybersex trafficking—barriers to entry are low, and profit margins are high.
A.J. would rape the girls, film the abuse, and broadcast it online. He offered live cybersex shows and collected money from customers who tuned in from the United States, Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands. Fronting as a “tour guide,” he arranged trips for sex tourists who would pay to travel and sexually exploit minors.
“My recruiter hurt me every day, when I do something bad that he don’t like…if I don’t follow him, he’s going to hurt me—just spank me, slap me in the face in front of other people.”
Cassie Was Not the Only One
“We are six victims inside of the house,” Cassie says. A.J. started grooming even younger children, including a 6-year-old boy and 11-month-old baby girl.
“He would just introduce [the baby girl] to everyone in our neighbourhood as his daughter. But when the baby will grow up, it’s like everything will change. Because he can use her just to have money. Just like us.”
“He can use her to be naked in front of the camera like sex slaves. Or [make her to be with] other customers in person and do pornography and just send all the pictures to the customers—just to have him some money.”
Cassie could only dream of escape. She dreamt of traveling to other countries far away. She dared not tell anyone at school or try to communicate back home what was happening. She was terrified.
“I want to do something bad to him, but I can’t. Something’s stopping me because I know that he will hurt me. So, I was very hopeless and like – I really wanted to kill him.”
A Second Chance
Cassie was not as alone as she felt. People were looking for her.
She came home from school on a Friday in November 2014, with the same pit that always dropped into her stomach on the weekends. That night she woke up to loud noises and police inside the three-story house where she had suffered for nearly five years.
“I was very scared. I was crying,” Cassie recalls. An IJM social worker was there that night, and she explained that Cassie and the younger children were not in trouble. They were being rescued.
Agents from the Philippine Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, US Homeland Security, the government social services agency, and IJM staff planned back-to-back operations. First, they rescued a 20-year-old woman and a 15-year-old girl from a high-rise hotel in downtown Manila, where A.J. had arranged a “sex party” with undercover agents. With A.J. in custody, the rescue team moved to the home where 16-year-old Cassie and two young children were asleep.
“IJM rescued me and transferred me in my second home,” Cassie says with a smile, eager to talk about “second home,” the beautiful aftercare shelter where she now lives. She calls the other girls her “second sisters,” and together they love dancing to YouTube choreographers and playing basketball every morning before classes begin.
Life in Second Home
Cassie is like a big sister to the two young children rescued from A.J.’s home on the same night. The baby girl is now 2 years old; she is shy and reserved until Cassie tickles her and finds an irresistible giggle. The young boy, now 7, is the only male in this shelter for girls.
This case represents the aftercare challenges for survivors of cybersex trafficking—the young ages, the family group, and the increase of male victims. IJM is working with the government on long-term solutions, and we are grateful for amazing aftercare partners like this home that agreed to take in the whole family.
IJM social workers and staff at the home are helping Cassie process the pain and betrayal she carried for so long in secret. “At first, Cassie blamed herself for dreaming high,” says Karen, her IJM social worker. “It is hard to pen how strong and courageous Cassie has been, given the intensity of circumstances she went through and how she has found her inner strength and beauty in the process of recovery. Cassie overcame the most difficult enemy she faced, herself, when she decided to stop blaming herself for everything that has happened. She unceasingly fights for her rights and strives for the realization of her dreams.”
“What gives me hope is first God. Because he’s my father who is there for me always. And my family. My sisters in my second home. And the owner of this shelter. And all the people who are always there for us just to support us. They are all my strength,” Cassie says.
Reaching Dreams
Cassie decided she wanted to participate in the trial against A.J. He is facing numerous charges involving different victims, including charges of rape, qualified human trafficking and violations of the anti-cybercrime act. Cassie bravely shared her testimony in court. A.J. was there. But so were the IJM social workers who love her and want what’s best for her.
IJM continues to support the trial, and Cassie’s life is moving forward. She has already testified multiple times, in her own hearing and as a witness in cases filed on behalf of the other children abused by A.J.
Her dream is still to travel, but no longer because she is desperate to escape. “I want to travel all over the world to see new things, to learn new things, to share to other people, to give them hope… And of course, I want to introduce my country, the Philippines, to show them how beautiful the country and the people are.”
Cassie says she has a message for other survivors. Her words are powerful as punches, but her tone is gentle, “I’m one of the victims too of cybersex trafficking who is standing in front of you talking to you… I want to tell her forget about the past, just stand with your own feet. And reach the dreams that you want to reach.”
*Cassie is a pseudonym to protect the identity of the survivor
