A 17-year-old girl sold sex to a 13-year-old

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Searched for father's love - and became a victim of violence

Tiffany Simpson was born and raised in the USA, Georgia. When she was six years old, her father went to life for murder. Tiffany's mother suffered from alcohol addiction and because of this she lost custody of her daughter, so from the age of 13 she was raised by her grandmother and aunt.

In high school, Tiffany didn't have any friends, and at some point she simply stopped attending classes. Then Tiffany began to have sex for money: according to her, the men with whom she slept became her "only friends." At the age of 16, Tiffany tried cocaine for the first time and started using it to feel nothing during sex.

At the age of 17, Tiffany met Sean (full name - Yarnell DeSean Donald). He was 34 years old, and, according to Tiffany, he looked after her: he called her beautiful, confessed his love and promised to take care of her. Tiffany later said that at that moment she felt vulnerable and alone, looking for "fatherly love." She didn't know when they started dating that Sean had a history of rape of a minor when he was 19 and the victim was 16.

Tiffany moved in with Sean, became pregnant and almost completely stopped communicating with relatives. Only sometimes she called her aunt and asked to pick her up from home, but when she arrived, Tiffany refused to get into the car and said that she had changed her mind. One day, relatives saw her with a bandage on her left thigh. Tiffany explained this by falling while climbing the stairs.

Seven months pregnant, Tiffany called her aunt from prison to post her bail. No one understood why she was there. Tiffany was released, but she did not stay free for long: after giving birth to her son and spending several months with him, she asked her aunt to take her to court, where the case of gang rape was heard. At the meeting, she pleaded guilty to human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

Received 20 years in prison for sex trafficking

During their relationship, Sean constantly took Tiffany to trailer parks and forced her to have sex with men for money. She listened to him because when he talked about his feelings for her, Tiffany got better . Tiffany also admitted that she was afraid of Sean: he beat her, threatened to burn down her grandmother's house if Tiffany left him, and promised to kill their child if the pregnancy prevented Tiffany from continuing to prostitute.

One day, a 13-year-old acquaintance of Tiffany named Caitlin told her that she wanted to run away from home and asked Tiffany to pick her up. Then Tiffany and Sean picked her up in a car, after which they took the girl to the trailer park. There she was raped by four men; each paid about $30 for it.

When, after some time, the men were caught, they all stated that it was Tiffany who had collected money from them that day for having sex with 13-year-old Caitlin.

Tiffany and Sean were detained and charged with sex trafficking. Pregnant Tiffany was released on bail, but ordered to appear in court. Tiffany did not know that under the law on the involvement of minors in commercial sex, she herself is a victim of human trafficking, and not a criminal. From the lawyer assigned to her by the court, she only learned that if she pleads guilty, she could get a shorter sentence.

Sean was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years. Tiffany was sentenced to 20 years in prison and another 10 years on probation. After her release, she was to be added to the register of sex offenders. In Georgia, people on this register are prohibited from visiting public places where “minors gather” (parks, playgrounds, libraries, swimming pools, school bus stops, etc.), as well as from living and working near these places and near schools and churches.

Tiffany's four-month-old son was given to her mother. A few years later, she lost custody of him due to her continued alcohol addiction. The child was adopted by Sean's mother.

Was a victim and went free

In 2012, after 10 months in prison, Tiffany wrote a letter to Andrea Powell, a woman who fights for the rights of victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation in the United States. Her name was quoted in a newspaper article that Tiffany read. The article talked about the problem of sex trafficking, which are the victims of American teenagers.

In her letter, Tiffany asked the human rights activist the question that tormented her: “Am I a victim of the sex trade or a prostitute?” Andrea told her that people under the age of 18 never engage in prostitution: from the point of view of the law, they are not old enough to agree to it on their own. Therefore, regardless of the circumstances, they are always victims.

For the next 10 years, Andrea Powell worked on the Tiffany case: contacting the prosecutor, looking for a new lawyer, writing articles about Tiffany and participating in the creation of a short documentary film about her life. It wasn't until 2022, with the consent of the prosecutor, that the state dropped Tiffany's human trafficking charges and she was released from prison with a probationary period and 500 hours of community service.

The 13-year-old girl who was raped in the trailer park is now in her 20s. Tiffany's lawyer tried to contact her but received no response. The girl also did not answer the journalists of The Washington Post. Tiffany's son is 11 and still lives with Sean's mother. Tiffany does not communicate with her, but wants to establish contact in order to get to know the child. Tiffany is afraid that her son won't want to see her.