Amy is fighting back. She's filed for restitution against at least 20 other people including Remsen McGinnis Benedict, AKA Wolfman and Raymond Highsmith a former Shriners leader. Hopefully more victims will follow in her footsteps to demand true justice and restitution. Amy begins her story: "My uncle started to abuse me when I was only 4 years old."
The Misty series is one of the most popular and readily available kiddie porn videos on the Internet. It's considered a collector's item among pedophiles. Downloading it is a felony. Officials have identified 750 individuals who possess the Misty series, but they believe tens of thousands of copies are out there.
Today, she suffers from severe post-traumatic stress disorder. Victims of child sexual abuse are more resistant to treatment than victims of other types of PTSD.The next time you see someone refer to child pornography as a "thought crime" stop for a moment and remember Amy and all the children whose experiences echo hers. The next time you hear a dumb duck say that child pornography may "prevent" a pedophile from molesting a child, remember Amy. Take a moment and read her Victim Impact statement. Keep her story in mind when you hear a victim-bashing dumb duck say "victims can get help and go on with their lives but the offenders life is destroyed forever by these laws".
I am horrified by the thought that other children will probably be abused because of my pictures. Will someone show my pictures to other kids, like my uncle did to me, then tell them what to do? Will they see me and think it's okay for them to do the same thing? Will some sick person see my picture and then get the idea to do the same thing to another little girl? These thoughts make me sad and scared.
I am always scared that people can look at me and tell that I am a victim of sex abuse because my abuse is a public fact. I am worried that when my friends are on the internet they are going to come across my pictures and it fills me with shame and embarrassment.
Every day of my life I live in constant fear that someone will see my pictures and recognize me and that I will be humiliated all over again. It hurts me to know someone is looking at them -- at me -- when I was just a little girl being abused for the camera. I did not choose to be there, but now I am there forever in pictures that people are using to do sick things.
I am being exploited and used every day and every night somewhere in the world by someone. How can I ever get over this when the crime that is happening to me will never end? How can I get over this when the shameful abuse I suffered is out there forever and being enjoyed by sick people?
Please think about me and think about my life when you sentence this person to prison. Why should this person, who is continuing my abuse, be free when I am not free?
