Stars demand justice for child sex slave serving life sentence

Celebrities including Rihanna and Kim Kardashian are rallying behind a sex trafficking victim serving a life sentence for killing a man who used her for sex.

Cyntoia Brown was imprisoned in 2006 over the death of real estate agent Johnny Allen, who picked her up near a hotel when she was just 16.

The teenager shot the 43-year-old at his Tennessee home, fearing he would attack her.

This week, high-profile stars have been calling for Brown to be pardoned, sharing details of her case and a photo still from a 2011 documentary.

“The system has failed. It’s heartbreaking to see a young girl sex trafficked then when she has the courage to fight back is jailed for life!” Kim Kardashian wrote on Twitter.

“We have to do better & do what’s right. I’ve called my attorneys yesterday to see what can be done to fix this.”

Pop star Rihanna condemned those “responsible for this child’s sentence”.

“Did we somehow change the definition of #JUSTICE along the way?” she wrote on Instagram. 

“Something is horribly wrong when the system enables these rapists and the victim is thrown away for life!”

Associated Press reports Brown endured physical, verbal and sexual abuse as a child before being trafficked by a pimp who called himself ‘Cut-throat’.

Cyntoia Brown receives her sentence in 2006.

She met the 24-year-old drug dealer in Nashville in 2004 after running away from home.

‘Cut-throat’ would physically and sexually abuse the 16-year-old and forced her to prostitute herself to pay for the motels they were living in.

Brown testified that ‘Cut-throat’ had pulled a gun on her, forced her to strip, and once choked her until she almost passed out.

“He would explain to me that some people were born whores, and that I was one, and I was a slut, and nobody’d want me but him, and the best thing I could do was just learn to be a good whore,” she told the court.

On August 5, the day Johnny Allen approached Brown on the street, ‘Cut-throat’ had hit her and told her to go out and bring back some money.