I had my rapist’s baby at nine, was forced to marry him at 11 and had six kids by 16 – my mum even made the wedding cake
AT just nine years old, most children's lives are filled with innocence and joy - but for Sherry her reality was a harrowing contrast.
Still a child, she fell pregnant at the hands of a rapist - a twisted 18-year-old church deacon.
Sherry was the daughter of the assistant "church mother" and her stepfather was the assistant pastor at a very strict Apostolic Christian church in Tampa, Florida.
Frightened and confused by the vile attack, she confided in her mother about the horrendous abuse she had suffered - but it fell on deaf ears as she was accused of lying.
A school teacher noticed the youngster’s growing belly and sent her to the school nurse for a check-up, with medics revealing Sherry was six months pregnant at the tender age of 10 - too young to even understand where babies came from.
Her mother was furious - not with her daughter’s abusers, but with Sherry - and began making arrangements to have her daughter married to the deacon, who had been the last man to abuse Sherry after her stepfather.
Alone and terrified, Sherry was sent away with the deacon and gave birth at a hospital thousands of miles away from home, with no visit from her mother.
“I gave birth to my daughter at the age of ten", Sherry previously told Sun Online.
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“Was it horrifying having a child so young? Yes it was. It was devastating. It was a situation in my life that I didn’t know exactly what to do - I was still a child myself."
But Sherry's chilling ordeal had only just begun.
She was forced to marry her rapist, 20, at just 11-years-old - with her mum showing not a shred of emotion on the day.
Hauntingly, she did, however, make her a dress, a veil and a cake.
The wedding was a small, quiet affair, with just a handful of guests.
Although Sherry was nervous, she heartbreakingly trusted that her mother knew best.
“I found a little bit of security in the marriage because my mother told me to do it - so I thought there must have been something OK with it," Sherry said.
But the shocking treatment continued with the bishop tormenting her with emotional and physical abuse.
He repeatedly got her pregnant, left her, then returned after the baby was born to impregnate her again.
By the age of 16, Sherry had six children.
“My married life was just horrible. I was dealing with a situation with my rapist who would get me pregnant every year and then leave me," Sherry said.
“Then he’d come back and I’d get pregnant again so that was terrifying for a young child to deal with over and over again."
SHERRY'S ANGUISH
Her sick husband eventually left her and was jailed for failing to pay child support.
Although she was deemed old enough to marry at 11, Sherry wasn't eligible to get a divorce until she was 18.
Thankfully, she was given special dispensation and divorced the deacon at 17.
Sherry’s anguish wasn’t over when she divorced her husband however, as she ended up marrying two further times, and was again subjected to vile abuse.
"I ended up repeating the same cycle two more times - I ended up marrying abusers not recognising that they were abusers at the time," Sherry said.
“The relationships got worse - it started off just being psychological, mental and verbal abuse but as time went on it became physical.
“This happened because of what I went through as a child - I wasn’t aware of what to look for in a relationship."
Sherry went on to have three more children, and now has more than 30 grandchildren.
She is now dedicates her life to lobbying for an end to child marriage in the United States.
Thanks to her hard work, the state of Florida passed a bill to increase the minimum age for marriage 18 - with exceptions for 17-year-old who are pregnant or with parental consent.
“I want to help all the other young girls so they won’t have to go through what I’ve been through," Sherry said.
“The bottom line is we need to stop our children being abused.”
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Despite the horrific abuse she suffered, Sherry says she has forgiven her abusers for what they did to her, and her mother for allowing it to happen.
“I knew I had to forgive so I wouldn’t hold onto the anger. I dealt with my pain and my depression so I could be free," she said.
