Forced as a child into sexual encounters with rich and powerful men, Anneke Lucas has spent three decades healing her body, mind and spirit from the horrendous abuse. Today, free from the past, she helps those imprisoned in the jails of New York City deal with their challenges via the Liberation Prison Yoga initiative. Here she shares her story:
From ages 6 to 11 I was regularly sold by my mother to a paedophile ring. It was Belgium, 1969-1974. Through the contact person who paid her, my mother placed me in a network of high profile paedophiles that included politicians, businessmen, and aristocrats, who made their castles and villas available for orgies and the torture of minors. In 1996, Marc Dutroux, the Marcinelle Monster, was arrested for the kidnapping and torture of six girls, of whom four are dead. A case that inflamed Belgium and Europe, not only because of the gruesome nature of the crimes, but also for the blatant missteps in the investigation. Convictions came only in 2004 and the court denied firmly the existence of an organised paedophile ring. I only wish the official version was the truth. After five-and-a-half years of countless rapes and torture, I was rescued by a network insider. At age 11, in 1974, my cruelest torturer, after he was done with me and I was to be tortured to death, had a last minute change of heart. As I was being tortured, he negotiated with the network boss for my freedom, and went to work for him in exchange for my life. My torture was interrupted. My rescuer set me free with a long list of survival instructions, which I followed my entire life: “Never become a prostitute, or sleep with anyone for money, or sleep with anyone for anything. Never buy drugs; you can take them when they’re given to you but never do anything to get them. Don’t drink too much. Leave your family as soon as possible, and leave this country. Go live in Paris, London, New York. You should marry a man your age from a wealthy family, preferably a family of New York bankers. Forget I exist and all the names of the people you’ve met.”