'I was raped aged 8, gave birth at 10, married at 11 and had six kids by 17'

At the tender age of just eight, Sherry Yvonne Johnson was first raped by a man nine years older than her. By 10, she had given birth to her rapist's baby, and by 11, she was forced to marry him.

Her abuser, Alfonsa Tolbert, held the position of deacon at the strict apostolic church her family attended. Describing the horrific abuse, Sherry recalled: "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 violence continued for another year until, at just nine, Sherry learnt she was pregnant.

Worried medical staff asked who the father was, but Sherry's mother - who stayed by her daughter's side throughout - forced the youngster to conceal the horrifying truth to protect the family's standing.

Instead, her mother hatched a different scheme. She sent Sherry away with the bishop to give birth far from their local community, thinking this would keep matters under wraps, reports the Mirror, reports the Irish Mirror.

However, during the journey to Miami, the bishop himself pulled over the car and sexually assaulted the seven-months-pregnant Sherry.

The youngster was forced to give birth thousands of miles away from home in a strange hospital with no one by her side. Consequently, child protection services started investigating Sherry's family and their church, prompting her mother to take a shocking course of action.

In a desperate bid to halt investigations, Sherry's mother forced her 11-year-old daughter to marry the man who had been sexually abusing her. "This terrified me - I had no idea how to be a wife, I was just a child," Sherry said.

Her own mother made the wedding dress, baked the cake, and prepared the veil for the ceremony, as Sherry was compelled to wed her abuser.

After an initial government clerk refused to issue a marriage licence due to Sherry's young age, they travelled to another county, where a different clerk granted permission for the disturbing union to go ahead.

"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."

Writing on the AHA Foundation's website, Sherry said: "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 told CBS News.

After the marriage took place, Sherry's rapist moved into the house with 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 abuser, Alfonsa, regularly disappeared, especially when she fell pregnant, offering no financial support to Sherry or their six children.

Because Sherry was still under 18, she was unable to file for divorce from her husband.

By this stage, Sherry had moved from her mother's home into housing authority accommodation with her six young children.

A solicitor then learnt of Sherry's circumstances and took on her case, securing a divorce from the deacon.

Sherry said: "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."

However, this left Sherry as a teenage mum of six with no financial support. But this remarkable woman refused to be beaten.

Channelling her trauma into hope, Sherry felt driven to help other youngsters enduring similar horrifying situations. In 2013, she authored the book Forgiving The Unforgivable, which details Sherry's harrowing experience of being forced into 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.

Following this, Sherry embarked on a campaign pushing for enhanced legal protections for children.

Writing on the AHA Foundation website, Sherry said: "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 an activist and staunch critic of child marriage throughout the United States, Sherry considers herself "the voice for the voiceless" and serves as a perpetually inspiring figure for others - despite having had her own childhood brutally taken from her.