A New Zealand mother who sold her teenage daughter as a sex slave to men more than 1000 times, beginning on her 15th birthday, is now behind bars.
Kasmeer Lata was sentenced to six years and 11 months in jail in Auckland’s High Court on Wednesday for dealing in slaves and receiving earnings from commercial sexual services from an underage person.
According to the New Zealand Herald, 36-year-old Lata sold her daughter to men for sexual services over a nearly two-year period. The teenager, whose name has been suppressed, was sold up to five times a day around the city.
In November 2016, she managed to flee from her mother’s Papatoetoe home and find assistance from police. She is now 18-years-old.
“I have to make up lies about four years of my life, and why I live by my own without my parents’ support,” she wrote in a heart-wrenching victim statement read out to the court, news.com.au reports.
“I see men differently now – I think they always want something from me, and that is why they are talking to me.
“I wonder what I did to deserve my Mum. All I wanted was your love as a child, teenager, and your girl.”
The teenager moved with her mother and brothers from Fiji to New Zealand just a year before the abuse began. As illegal immigrants, the girl could not be enrolled in school without alerting authorities.
Court documents obtained by the Herald show the mother collected an estimated $100,000 and kept half.
Defence counsel Karl Trotter told the court: “Ms Lata has come to the realisation that she may well be the most despised woman in New Zealand. That will be her burden”.
Lata’s partner, Avneensh Sehgal, pleaded guilty to dealing in underage people for sexual exploitation and receiving earnings from underage sexual exploitation after she was sentenced. He will stand trial next week.
For more support or more information, contact 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.
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