NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Abbey George Ware fought back tears on Friday as she recalled what happened to her when she was 16 years old.
Ware shared her story Friday after Samuel Sylvester, the man she accused of sexual assault and grooming, was found guilty of statutory rape.
Ware said it all started 15 years ago.
“When I was 16 years old, I met Samuel Sylvester at a music performance that I did,” Ware said on Friday during a press conference at the Franklin Police Department.
“It just became ugly, and it got uglier and uglier as time went on, and he became very possessive in nature to control my life,” Ware said.
She realized if she didn’t do something, she could end up dead.
After one final incident, she ended up telling her parents.
“If I would’ve known that, that was all it took for it to stop, and I would’ve done it so much sooner,” Ware said.
For 10 years after that, she lived in fear.
He’d show up at places she was. She’d move and he’d find her.
When she became a mother, she had enough. Ware said she was in car with her child.
“Sammy [Samuel] was sitting in a car and he saw me and rolled my window down,” she said.
He was trying to talk to her, but, ‘I said the words ‘Hell no!’ and that was my final hell no.”
Ware got an order of protection, filed a police report and had to share her story.
She said she once felt alone, but by sharing, she realized she wasn’t.
“There was a 12-year-old victim that had already come out, and I just couldn’t breathe,” Ware said. “I couldn’t fathom him doing anything like he did to me to a 12-year-old girl.
Her drive now is to let other victims know you are not alone,
”There are women 100% that have also been affected by this man,” Ware said. “Please, please, please, it’s hard and it’s scary but it’s so healing. He’s in jail he can’t hurt you.”
She says by sharing her story she’s found healing and wishes that for other women who may have been impacted,
”You don’t know the strength that you’re going to find after you say the words out loud. You don’t know the people that are going to surround you and care for you,” she said.
Sylvester has not been sentenced yet. Franklin Police also believe there are more victims out there and they’re encouraging them to come forward.
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