A courageous woman has shared her harrowing ordeal of being abducted by a ruthless gang with intentions of selling her virginity and organs, and how she ultimately escaped the horrors.
Lurata Lyon revealed the disturbing details of how her virginity was auctioned to an overseas buyer and how she endured being held at gunpoint while witnessing other girls being sexually assaulted to learn how to please men.
Now aged 45, Lurata’s traumatic journey began when she fled her hometown of Veliki Trnovac, Serbia, at the age of 17 to escape the extreme violence in Yugoslavia during the 1990s. Following an invasion by an ethnic cleansing murder squad in her village, she embarked on a perilous journey across mountains to Kosovo in search of assistance from the Red Cross.
Upon being rescued by two US soldiers, her safety was compromised when a local translator alerted a human trafficking gang, leading to her abduction while innocently going to buy a magazine at a newsstand.
She recounted the terrifying moment when she was blindfolded, taken to their hideout, and threatened with rape until she disclosed her virginity, which sparked the kidnappers’ interest.
Lurata vividly remembered the constant presence of a gun aimed at her as she was forced to witness unspeakable acts before being prepared for trafficking across the Albanian border.
Despite facing coercion from the gang’s leader to submit to him in exchange for her release, she bravely refused, prompting him to order her disposal.
In a desperate bid for freedom, she seized an opportunity to escape when she found keys and a gun while left unattended momentarily, leading to a daring flight from captivity.
After a dramatic encounter with her captor and subsequent rescue by a UN police officer, Lurata underwent police questioning and, faced with escalating danger in her hometown, endured further abuse from bogus military personnel.
A turning point came when her father, a local doctor, orchestrated her escape from captivity, allowing her to flee the country clandestinely and seek asylum in the UK.
Achieving British citizenship in 2005, Lurata, who later penned her memoir “Unbroken: Surviving Human Trafficking,” expressed profound gratitude to the British community for their support. Despite enduring lasting trauma, she emphasized her resilience and ability to maintain kindness in the face of adversity, highlighting the transformative impact of trauma and cruelty on individuals.
Today, Lurata serves as a motivational speaker and public speaking coach in the UK, reflecting on her journey of survival and resilience.
