‘You don’t have to feel ashamed’

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This article was published 07/12/2015 (3821 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As a teen, she went from a loving, middle-class home to being trafficked for sex to middle-class dads in the West End.

After that, she was “sold” in Toronto. Finally, she returned to Winnipeg, where she threw herself off the Maryland Street Bridge, breaking bones in her back, legs and feet.

Now 32, Jessica Pennock is a survivor who is determined to prevent girls from getting sucked in by predators, such as the one who got her at age 15.

“I was just a kid,” Pennock said.

At the time, her family had just moved to Winnipeg, and she was bullied at school. She switched schools.

“I was vulnerable — I felt the need to belong and to be accepted.”

She met a young man who was playing basketball at the nearby rec centre, and he exploited her vulnerability.

“He befriended me, bought me lavish gifts like jewelry and purses,” said Pennock. He introduced her to crack cocaine. “He said ‘Try this — it’s like pot, but better.’ “

She got hooked on the drug, and the older boyfriend’s attention and started running away from home. What her parents initially thought was a teenage rebellion turned into a sex-trafficking nightmare that took her to another province.

“I was beaten, raped and sold in Toronto,” she said.

But first, she worked in Winnipeg.

“I was put to work on the street,” at the corner of Ellice Avenue and Home Street.

She said the men paying for sex with a teen came “from all walks of life — there were middle-class husbands, teachers, doctors.” At 15, she was far from the youngest girl trafficked in the area. “There was a 12-year-old girl,” said Pennock. “I bought her some pizza. She said her mom turned her out.”

Pennock said she had to make $200 each time on the street to pay off her drugs. When she got a little older, she was “put in an apartment” with up to 10 men a day showing up at the downtown highrise.

“I was just living day to day.”

She moved to Toronto in 2005 and shared a place with a girlfriend while working at an escort agency. When she was arrested, she was sold “from one predator” — who put up the $3,000 surety to get her out of jail — “to another predator” for $3,000. After he was slain in 2007, she moved back to Winnipeg and went into rehab.

“It didn’t work, and I got back on crack.”

She hit rock bottom in December of that year.

“I felt so much guilt and shame. I was strung out, hopeless, and didn’t see any future.”

‘I was vulnerable — I felt the need to belong and to be accepted’

She tried to commit suicide.

“I jumped off the Maryland bridge and landed on the ice.”

She broke bones in her feet, legs and back. When she regained consciousness days later, she had casts on both her legs and metal pins and rods holding her together. Surviving a brush with death didn’t change anything, she said.

“The turning point was when I got pregnant with my daughter,” said Pennock. She knew she’d lose her daughter if she didn’t get help. She moved to the Villa Rosa residence and took part in an addiction program. She still goes to 12-step programs. Her obsession with drugs went away but not the shame and guilt.

Then she met former Conservative MP Joy Smith, whose foundation raises awareness about sex trafficking in Canada. A light went on for Pennock. For the first time, she realized what had happened to her — being groomed then trafficked from the age of 15 — wasn’t her fault.

“I’m a survivor of a horrible crime,” she said.

Now she’s volunteering with the Joy Smith Foundation and sharing her story. The foundation is going to junior high schools to teach students about predators’ tactics and how to avoid them and stay safe.

Smith, who was a teacher for 23 years before she was an MP, said she’s prepared course material in English and French that are age-appropriate and should be part of the curriculum in schools across Canada.

“I think if I had known what it was — what are the signs of a predator — that wouldn’t have happened to me,” said Pennock, who is in her second year of college and wants to work with at-risk children. Her daughter is three years old and the light of her life. They are close to Pennock’s parents.

She wants people to watch for the signs a young loved one might be the victim of sex trafficking. For her, it was running away, being withdrawn and showing up with new clothes, purses and jewelry. Nobody picked up on it.

“I’m hoping some girl out there will realize the situation they’re in and seek help,” said Pennock.

“I want people to know you don’t have to feel ashamed.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca