'I had first my baby at 10, married at 11 and mum to six children by 17'

At just eight years old, Sherry Yvonne Johnson was sexually assaulted for the first time by a man nine years her senior, had delivered her attacker's baby by age 10, and was wed to him by 11.

Her abuser, Alfonsa Tolbert, served as a deacon at the rigid apostolic church her family worshipped at.

Recounting the terrible ordeal, Sherry said: "All you had to do was walk down the steps from the church and you'd walk into our kitchen. That's where he raped me. I woke up with him on top of me. Many times."

The sexual assault persisted for another year, until at the vulnerable age of just nine, Sherry discovered she was expecting.

Concerned medics questioned who the father was, but Sherry's mother - who remained at her daughter's side - compelled the youngster to hide the dreadful reality to protect the family's reputation, reports <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/i-raped-8-mum-10-35685860" rel="Follow" target="_self">the Mirror</a>.

Her mother devised an alternative plan instead.

She dispatched Sherry with the bishop to deliver the child far from their community, believing this would contain the scandal.

Yet during their journey to Miami, the bishop himself stopped the car and sexually assaulted the seven-months-pregnant Sherry.

The young girl had to deliver her baby thousands of miles from home in an unfamiliar hospital with nobody there to support her. Consequently, child protection services launched an investigation into Sherry's family and their church, prompting her mother to devise another perilous scheme.

To silence their enquiries, Sherry's mother concluded the optimal solution was to wed her 11-year-old daughter to her abuser.

"This terrified me - I had no idea how to be a wife, I was just a child," said Sherry.

Her own mother crafted the wedding gown, the wedding cake, and the veil for the ceremony - as Sherry was compelled to wed the man who had been assaulting her for years.

Following the initial government official's refusal to issue Sherry and her abuser a marriage licence owing to her tender age, they travelled to a different county, where the second official granted them permission to proceed with the horrifying arrangement.

"The state of Florida failed me. The school knew. The hospital knew. The doctors knew. The courts knew. Nobody protected me - not one person. No one."

In a post on AHA Foundation's website, Sherry writes: "In my eyes, not only my family, but also the whole state of Florida, sanctioned child marriage by allowing an 11-year-old to marry a grown man. Nobody ever asked me if I wanted to be married, if I was scared, or if I "loved" the man I was forced to marry. All they needed me to do was sign a piece of paper saying that I had a child.

"I feel the whole system failed me. It wasn't just one person. It wasn't just one source," Sherry said in an interview with CBS News. Following the marriage, Sherry's rapist moved into the family home alongside her, her mother, her husband, and their child.

Sherry said: "We lived in my mother's home for the entirety of our so-called marriage. Our relationship was extremely unhealthy. My husband was largely absent and was never there for me emotionally.

"I was forced to stay home and take care of my child, while learning how to be a wife at the age of 11. I never even finished elementary school. By the time I was 17, I had six children. I was a child raising children."

Her attacker, Alfonsa, frequently vanished, particularly when she fell pregnant, and provided no financial assistance to Sherry or their six children.

Since Sherry remained under 18, she was prohibited from initiating divorce proceedings against her spouse.

At this point, Sherry had relocated from her mother's home into council housing with her six youngsters.

Eventually, a solicitor became aware of Sherry's situation and agreed to represent her, resulting in a divorce from the deacon.

Sherry explained: "He [the lawyer] defied state bar rules that would have prevented him from offering me assistance and worked successfully in getting my divorce granted by the court."

Nevertheless, this left Sherry as a teenage mum of six children without any financial assistance. But this extraordinary woman refuses to be defeated.

Transforming her ordeals into optimism, Sherry felt compelled to help other youngsters facing similar terrifying circumstances.

In 2013, she penned the book Forgiving The Unforgivable, which chronicles Sherry's ordeal of being trapped in a forced child marriage.

"Releasing this book allowed my journey to be heard in every corner of the US and shed light on child marriage in our country," she writes.

Subsequently, Sherry launched her campaign for stronger legal safeguards for children.

In her piece on the AHA Foundation website, Sherry reveals: "For many years, legislators shut the door in my face. They questioned my story and denied that my experiences happened. This didn't stop me, because I had a mission and passion for those children who had no way out. Eventually, someone finally went back and did their research and realized I was telling the truth: Florida allows children to marry adults.

"After this, legislators were very open and receptive to requests to work on legislation that would change state marriage law. They eventually enacted SB 140, which strengthened the protections around child marriage, but it still allows 17-year-olds to marry in certain circumstances."

Now a campaigner and fierce opponent of child marriage across the United States, Sherry regards herself as "the voice for the voiceless" and stands as a perpetually motivating role model for others - despite having her own childhood cruelly stolen from her.