HarperElement
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First published by HarperElement 2015
FIRST EDITION
© Megan Stephens and Jane Smith 2015
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2015
Cover photograph © Yolande de Kort/Trevillion Images (posed by model)
Megan Stephens and Jane Smith assert the moral
right to be identified as the authors of this work
A catalogue record of this book is
available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780007594078
Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2015 ISBN: 9780007594085
Version: 2014-12-17
Contents
Some Facts about Modern-day Slavery
A Police Perspective on Human Trafficking in the UK
I would like to express my gratitude to the many people who have supported and stuck by me throughout my recovery process.
First, I would like to give special thanks to John and Anthony for giving me the strength to carry on through life and for showing me that men are not all the same.
I would also like to thank the girls in recovery I have met along the way for their inspiration and encouragement to keep going, my grandparents for their gentle and loving hearts, and all the other amazing people who have given me hope and become my friends.
And thank you to my mum for all your support and love, especially during recent times. I love you so much.
by Sophie Hayes*
I was pleased to be asked to write a foreword to Megan’s deeply moving story. Then I thought about it a bit more and began to get anxious: it felt like a big responsibility to introduce something so personal and so incredibly important to Megan. I needn’t have worried though. As soon as I read the manuscript of her amazing book Bought and Sold, I realised that Megan can speak for herself and that what I was really being asked to do was give my support to another survivor of sex trafficking. And as supporting survivors of human trafficking is a cause that’s very close to my heart, I would like to add my voice to Megan’s and reiterate a couple of the points she raises in her book.
One of the aspects of Megan’s story that particularly struck me – apart from her bravery and the brutality of the treatment she endured for so long – was her explanation of the psychological fear that prevented her from trying to escape, even when she apparently had opportunities to do so.
Being paralysed by fear and by the belief that, in some way, you deserve the terrible things that are being done to you are common themes among people who’ve been trafficked for sex. I know it’s an aspect that some people find impossible to understand. Perhaps I wouldn’t have understood