CHARLOTTE, N.C. — At age 19, Jillian Mourning went for a modeling job that turned into a trick to lure her into sex trafficking.
"They raped me, videotaped it and photographed it and later I found out it was sold on the Internet," she said.
The man she thought was her agent used the video for blackmail.
"He said, 'Whenever I need you to be available, you will meet me and I'm going to sell you to these men,'" Mourning said.
The abuse finally stopped when he was arrested for financial crimes.
When she learned he'd trafficked other girls, she started healing and formed a nonprofit called All We Need is LOVE (Liberation for Victims Everywhere).
"As more people can come forward and feel comfortable coming forward and feel like no one is judging you for that, just like a breast cancer survivor, we are survivors and we are strong," Mourning said.
She hopes to educate the community, reaching out to children in local middle schools, training staff at hotels and workers who install cable systems -- anyone who's regularly inside homes or businesses -- to spot signs of the victims who go unnoticed every day.
"When you look at the young girl in church, or picking up your child from school, I was sitting in church every Sunday and until I did a testimonial no one knew it had happened to me," she said.
WSOC
