APPLETON (WI)
USA Today Network-Wisconsin
April 4, 2018
By Chris Mueller
Kimberly was only 12 years old when she became a victim of sex trafficking.
“I didn’t know that there was help. I didn’t know that there were people who cared,” she told a crowd gathered Wednesday afternoon inside the Outagamie County administration building in downtown Appleton for a Hands Around the Courthouse event.
Kimberly, who is being identified only by her first name to protect her privacy, is originally from a small Wisconsin town of a few hundred people and was victimized by a female neighbor.
She is now 30 years old and described being scared for her life, but also too afraid to try to find help. She said the criminals in these situations don’t stand out in a crowd.
“They could be your neighbor,” she said. “And it’s not only men.”
More than 50 people gathered in the main lobby of the administration building Wednesday. They heard speakers, listened to a choir from Appleton West High School and held hands, spreading out across the lobby and up the stairs as they remembered the pain of those who have suffered at the hands of child abuse. It marked the fourth year of the Hands Around the Courthouse event.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.