The tragic story of a village girl

(Baonghean) - Married at the age of 14, Mo thought she would follow her husband to the fields and the village for the rest of her life. But then, a little greed, a little foolishness and limited knowledge of the law, Mo had to pay the price with days in prison and the bad reputation of being a "human trafficker".

At the age of 20, Cao Thi Mo (born in 1994, Ke Gia village, Thach Ngan commune, Con Cuong) has been through 2 marriages and 3 motherhoods. That alone is enough to know that Mo’s life is not as peaceful as many girls in this mountainous district. Accompanying Mo to the court was her mother. She “escorted” her daughter to Vinh to face the judgment of the law with a bruised face. “Mo was beaten by dad,” Mo began her story like that. Despite her best efforts, Mo only finished 5th grade and then stayed home to work in the fields with her mother.

Mo's mother, like many other women in the village, only knew how to silently follow her husband to the fields and then return home to cook and do laundry. Even when her husband beat her, she did not dare say anything but silently endured. Not wanting to witness the scene of her father beating her mother like a daily meal, at the age of 14, Mo agreed to become someone else's wife. Mo's husband was born in 1987, right in the village. At the age of 15, Mo became a mother. Unfortunately, the child was 2 years old and still could not speak. Then Mo gave birth to her second child, and the storms in Mo's life began from there. "My husband is kind, but my in-laws are very difficult. My first child is deaf and mute, and was rejected by my grandparents, so I abandoned my two children and went to Nam Dinh to make a living.

I also love my child very much, but partly because I don't have money to treat him, partly because my in-laws kicked me out of the house, so..." - Mo left the sentence hanging there with tears rolling down her cheeks. Coming to Nam Dinh, Mo was hired as a janitor at a motel. Missing her child, but thinking about earning more than 1 million VND each month, trying to save up to go home to take her child to the doctor, maybe... so Mo told herself to try harder. Working hard all day, cleaning and doing laundry, the longing also lessened, but at night, thinking about her two children made Mo unable to sleep.

Defendant Mo in court.

Missing his wife, Mo's husband sometimes took a bus to Nam Dinh to visit her. Partly because he missed his children and partly because his job was not suitable, Mo decided to return to her hometown to live. Knowing Mo's intention to return to her hometown, Pham Thi Linh (the owner of the motel) and Bui Thi Lieu asked Mo to help find female service staff. If successful, Linh and Lieu would each pay Mo and her husband 2 million VND. Greed arose, Mo went back to discuss with her husband, Vi Van Mao, how to lure and deceive tall, attractive country girls to work in Nam Dinh, and then through connections, sell the victims into prostitution to earn money.

Returning to their hometown in April 2010, Mo Mao and his wife found VT (born in 1993) and TH (born in 1994) who agreed to go to Nam Dinh to work as waiters at a motel. Mo and his wife took them to their place and received 4 million VND as wages. The second time, at the end of May 2010, Mao brought TY (born in 1997, TH's younger sister) to Nam Dinh to give to Bui Thi Lieu, but Lieu refused to accept Y because she was too young.

After TY returned and told the whole story, her family reported it to the police. Realizing that this was a particularly dangerous case of human trafficking, the provincial police investigated and rescued the victims who had been sold into prostitution. At the time of being sold, TH was only 15 years, 5 months, and 15 days old; TY was just over 12 years, 9 months old. For the crime of human trafficking and child trafficking, Vi Van Mao was sentenced to 12 years in prison. For the same crime, Nguyen Thi Linh was sentenced to 3 years in prison. When she learned that her husband had been arrested, Mo fled to Giao Thuy (Nam Dinh), where she lived as husband and wife with a man and gave birth to another child. Knowing that she could not escape the law, in October 2013, Cao Thi Mo returned and surrendered to the Nghe An Provincial Police Department.

In the dock, Mo confessed all her crimes. The mother of the victims TH and TY also asked the panel of judges to consider reducing the sentence for Cao Thi Mo. In the eyes of this woman, Mo is like her daughter, born in the same year, growing up in the same village and being close friends. "The child is foolish, the mother bears it, I ask the court to consider giving Mo the lowest sentence so she can return to her children," Mrs. Nam said in court. Realizing that Cao Thi Mo violated the law due to her lack of knowledge, the defendant confessed honestly and repented, the panel of judges sentenced her to 5 years in prison for child trafficking and 1 year in prison for human trafficking. Combining both sentences, Cao Thi Mo must serve a sentence of 6 years in prison. "I will try to reform well to return soon. I'm afraid that by then my children will no longer remember me," Mo bowed her head, trying to hide the tears that were about to fall.

Article and photos:Khang Hoa