Florida woman forced to marry rapist at 11 years old

A Florida woman shared her story of how she was raped as a child, got pregnant at 10 years old and then legally married her rapist at age 11.

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Sherry Johnson, now 57, told WTSP that she "was raped repeatedly" while living in an apartment building attached to her church in Tampa.

“The deacon had keys, and so he would come in when he got ready, and guess where he would come? My room,” she told WTSP.

When Johnson got pregnant, she told WTSP she didn’t even know what it meant. She was sent by her mother to Miami in 1970 to have the baby and then got legally married to her rapist, who was 20, in 1971, WTSP reported. Johnson’s mother, who was very involved with the church, took her daughter to Pinellas County to have a judge sign off on the marriage after court officials in Hillsborough County refused to issue a marriage license.

Johnson’s mother made her a wedding dress, a veil and a wedding cake.

Johnson described her marriage as “a living hell,” and had five more children with her husband, according to WTSP. She filed for divorce at age 18.

“We didn't really talk that much, I was there for sex only. We didn't have conversations,” Johnson said to WTSP.

Current Florida law does not prevent child marriage and allows girls under 18 to get married “when a child or pregnancy is involved,” WTSP reported.

"That's why I won't stop," Johnson, who wrote a book about her experience, said. "That's why I'm going to do everything I possibly can that no one has to go through this. It's not fair. It's not right, and we shouldn't allow it to happen."

Read the full story at WTSP.com

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