Tanya Nichole Kach, sex slave

A Childhood Ends in Captivity

The change was, according to court papers, abrupt. After a month of sneaking into Sokol's home, Hose allegedly brought the teen to stay at his house. All the efforts that had been taken to change her appearance and obscure her identity immediately became moot. Hose, she said, had no intention of letting anyone see her other than himself.

In fact, she alleged, he ordered her to remain in a second floor bedroom in the house. Although authorities say there is evidence to suggest that she was physically restrained, —no shackles or ropes, or handcuffs— authorities now believe Hose used a far more effective means to bind the girl to him. He used fear, they allege, and he used her own insecurity and psychological vulnerabilities against her. Often, according to published reports, he would tell her that he was the only person in the world who cared for her, that no one, not her father, not the authorities, no one missed her and no one was looking for her.

And just in case that wasn't enough to convince her to remain his captive, authorities have alleged, he also used threats. As authorities wrote in the affidavit, Hose "threatened to kill her if she left or attempted to leave."

In fact, authorities maintain, the young girl spent the rest of her childhood, four years from 14 to 18, without ever being permitted to leave the room. It wasn't until she was legally a woman that she was able to walk out of the house, and then, it was only under an assumed name that her captive had given her. He called her Nikki Allen, and that was how, at long last he introduced her to his parents.

In many respects, Nikki was a woman with no past. And in a way, that was true, her childhood, according to her account to authorities, had been stolen from her.

And it wasn't just the summer days after high school, the first dates and the long talks with girlhood friends that she had allegedly been cheated of. She had also been robbed, authorities have alleged in their complaints against Hose and Sokol of her innocence.

The law has a cold and austere way of describing such a thing. It uses marble hard phrases like "corruption of minors" and "endangering the welfare of children" that hardly do justice to the ordeal that Kach has claimed she survived. The sexual abuse she says she suffered is somehow supposed to be captured in the phrases "involuntary deviate sexual intercourse," and "indecent assault," and "statutory sexual assault."

But if the story Kach told police is true in all its particulars, what she endured went far beyond those cold words. As she put it, she was repeatedly sexually abused throughout her teens by Hose, and, according to the complaint, "Hose had her record their (sexual) sessions in her calendar book which she had so he could brag to his co-workers and friends," not just about the nature of the sexual favors he exacted from the girl, but also of its frequency.