"Jane Doe" - 12 yo (2000) -Blue Springs (E of Kansas City) MO

Her childhood wasn't so much stolen as it was sold.

And in a courtroom Wednesday in Kansas City, Mo., a young woman
who, beginning at age 12, was trained and used as a sexual dominatrix
gave an impassioned accounting of her torment.

"I was reduced to an object and a paycheck by my own mother," she said.

Her mother, a former Blue Springs, Mo., resident, was sentenced Wednesday in U.S.
District Court in Kansas City to 15 years in federal prison after
pleading guilty to commercial sex trafficking of a minor. Her name is
not being printed to protect her daughter's identity.

The woman was ordered to pay $200,000 in restitution to help pay for the
counseling her now-adult daughter will need. The money will be
garnisheed from any wages she earns in prison and after her release.

Prosecutors said the 46-year-old defendant is the first person in the country to be
prosecuted under the trafficking law in a case involving his or her own child.
A psychologist called by Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia Cordes
said he has treated sexual abuse victims for 30 years and suggested that
the victim would need decades of therapy to overcome the effects of
"five years of sexual perversion and degradation."

"This is one of the two or three most egregious cases I've been involved with,"
Gerald Gentry said.

The abuse started in 2000, when the girl was
12. She and her mother were living with a man named Todd Barkau, who
pleaded guilty last November to the same commercial sex trafficking
charge. He has not been sentenced.

According to previously filed court documents, Barkau, with the mother's knowledge, trained the girl
to engage in sadomasochistic sex acts with him and others.

When the girl was 14, Barkau set up a website that billed her as "Mistress
Alisha." For two years, he offered her for in-person and online sexual
encounters in exchange for cash or items such as DVD players or
cappuccino machines. The mother knew about the business, witnessed some
of the sessions and benefited economically from her daughter's sexual
encounters, prosecutors said.

When asked by the judge if she had
anything to say, the defendant shook her head. Her attorney, Assistant
Federal Public Defender Stephen Moss, said that although his client
disputes some of the details, including that she received any money, she
accepts guilt for failing in her duty to stop the abuse.

The victim, now in her early 20s and married, said she "cried and pleaded"
with her mother many times to get her out of the situation.

"Every time, she turned me down flat," she said. "She made it clear I was
wrong as a child to question her."

She said she longed for a normal childhood and ached when she saw other kids her age doing the
kinds of things she never got to do.

"You only get one shot to be a child," she said, sobbing. "I will never get that back. I wanted to
have it so bad."