'Scarborough Country' brings you the moving story of one young girl who survived years of abuse from her adoptive father and became the victim of child pornography. The girl — only known to law enforcement officials as "the girl without a smile" — speaks out to affiliate WESH-TV's Bob Kealing.
We will call her Mia. She is 12-years-old. Her favorite color is purple. Her pet hamster's name is B.J. She seems like your normal sixth grader.
But thisinsightful and funny sixth grader has been through hell.
Mia's new adoptive mother, Faith, says the Russian-born girl was stabbed in the back of her neck by her parents.
Now, emotional scars match the physical ones.
Russian authorities moved Mia to an orphanage. Then came new hope: an American from Pittsburgh. He saw five-year-old Mia and decided to adopt, but her savior was just another monster.
Mia's mom " believes" he brought her over here specifically to abuse the child. "She said everything started the same day."
For six years, Faith said Mia was a virtual slave, forced against her will to have sex. And it didn`t stop there. Mia's abuser took sexually explicit photos of her in arcades and hotel elevators.
"She knew it wasn't normal, but she was scared," says Faith. "He told her that no one would believe her, or that there was just no way out of it."
The abuser sold hundreds of images of his own adoptive daughter to Internet pedophiles. Some were taken during Orlando vacations. Two years ago, the FBI finally unmasked Mia's monster.
In February 2004, a judge sentenced Pittsburgh engineer Matthew Alan Mancuso to 15 years in prison for producing child pornography of his own daughter. But he has not been tried for raping her.
"I think it`s wrong how he didn't get charged with half the stuff he did, and I don`t think that should happen to anybody," says abuse victim Mia.
Her mother says Mia is well aware of how difficult it's going to be to bring the man who abused her for so long to justice. And, for that, they will both lean on the faith that's gotten them through so much already.
'Scarborough Country' airs weeknights at 10 p.m. ET