After the shutdown of Backpage.com a local woman trafficked on the site is sharing her story.
We are not identifying the woman who describes being sold for sex, required to make $1,500 a day.
She tells Action News Jax how traffickers get the upper hand, and why other women can find hope, in what happened to her.
Her trafficker made her post photos and create ads on the site -- finding clients was easy, she said.
On average she says she slept with five to 10 men a day.
"I was required to make $1,500 a day minimum for him and if I didn’t I was beaten." A sex trafficking survivor says she was required to post ads on #Backpage daily. At 6:00 she shares where she was trafficked in our city. @ActionNewsJax pic.twitter.com/M9Ajl8sO0W
— Bridgette Matter (@bridgetteANjax) April 16, 2018
“A 15-minute visit with me required $100, a half-hour visit with me required $150, and an hour visit with me was $200,” She says.
She was hooked on drugs, using $200 worth of heroin a day.
“These men are your everyday men, these men are doctors, these men are lawyers, these men are husbands, these men are the dads that are at their son's and daughter’s soccer games cheering them on.”
The woman was trafficked for over two years, with clients in all corners of Northeast Florida: Ponte Vedra Beach, Queens Harbour, downtown.
Finally, an undercover Backpage.com sting led to her arrest.
“As I started to get undressed, that’s when JSO and the task force kicked in the door. I was sad but I was so relieved at the same time," the woman said.
She says the arrest saved her life.
She is more than six months sober and hopes her story touches a woman in a similar situation.
Cox Media Group