A SCHOOLGIRL has shared the horrific details of abuse she endured at the hands of a predator – as it’s revealed almost half of US states have “legalised” child rape.
Shocking figures show almost 210,000 girls as young as 12, were forced to marry between 2000 and 2010, and 75 per cent wed adult men.
And Tina, known only by her first name, was one of them, at the tender age of 13.
After she fell pregnant to the 33 year old man, he wasn’t charged with statutory rape.
Instead, he was granted a licence to marry her the exact same year, in Louisville, Kentucky.
After they wed, it became a downward spiral of physical, emotional and sexual abuse.
She told news.com.au: “I was beaten black and blue every other day and raped constantly,” she continued.
“I didn’t have anyone to turn to so I didn’t think I had an out. When I tried to leave my husband reported me as a runaway and authorities took me back to him.
“It wasn’t until much later I realised I was a victim of legal child rape.”
The United Nations regards marriage before the age of 18 as a human rights violation.
The majority of US states do not set out a minimum age for marriage, if exceptions such as parental or judicial consent are met. Or in the case of a pregnancy.
Child marriage survivors often say they were forced to marry against their will, particularly if they were pregnant to avoid the stigma of giving birth outside wedlock.
Laws have recently changed in the US state of Kentucky with the introduction of a bill that sets the minimum legal age for marriage at 17.
But in half of the country’s states, there is no legal minimum age for marriage, if statutory exceptions including parental or judicial consent, or pregnancy, are met.
In those places, a 40-year-old man can, in theory, marry a five-year-old girl.
Kansas University’s Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies professor and chair Nicholas Syrett said in most states with no legal minimum age for marriage, an adult who had sex with a child of any age was immune from prosecution — as long as the act took place after the wedding.
He added: “Many statutory rape laws are written in such a way that if you’re married to a person it’s no longer considered statutory rape.
“One of the expectations of marriage is that sexual relations will occur so if you’re a child who has married an adult, it’s not viewed as a crime if sex happens within that.
“The protections of marriage would in theory protect a man from having sex with a small child, but it’s extremely rare for a judge to approve a marriage for anyone aged under 12 in any state.”
A version of this story originally appeared on news.com.au
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