Saturday, April 27, 2019
A travesty of justice
A Georgia man who forced a teenage girl to be a sex slave in exchange for food — and kept her in captivity for more than a year — is being set free.
Michael Wysolovski, 33, got credit Thursday for the eight months he has already spent in jail while charged with first-degree cruelty to children and interstate interference with custody — and will be allowed to remain out on probation for the rest of his 10-year-sentence, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
The victim, who clutched a stuffed animal and spoke in a soft voice during his sentencing, detailed her fear of showering and rain because of “water torture” she claimed to have endured. She called her “spirit” and “sense of self” “irreparably broken” and said she now constantly checks locks in an obsessive way to ensure she is safe.
“The psychological damage Michael Wysolovski inflicted is beyond imagination,” the victim said.
Wysolovski, who must register as a sex offender, was cuffed back in June 2017 when FBI agents and local police discovered a 17-year-old North Carolina girl inside his home who’d been missing for more than a year.
The girl was malnourished, had ringworm and was suffering from back issues she developed after she was repeatedly kept in a dog cage, her father said in a victim impact statement, according to the outlet.
Wysolovski met the girl on an anorexia forum online when she was just 15-years-old when she told the man, who is about twice her age, that she was unhappy at her home.
He convinced her to come live with him and when she was 16, she walked 3 miles from her Charlotte home and met up with him on the side of a freeway.
Wysolovski convinced the girl to act out rape scenes with him in a “consensual non-consensual” relationship that’s common in BDSM (bondage, domination, submission, masochism) couples but that typically come with very strict guidelines on what’s allowed, what’s not and a safe word that can be used when the play becomes too much or gets dangerous.
Prosecutors said Wysolovski started to violate the terms of their agreement over time where he refused to use the safe word and used “excessive force” like biting and other physical violence.
While the victim, who’s anorexic, originally encouraged Wysolovski to control her eating habits, which included keeping a daily journal of how many calories she consumed, he later used food as punishment and would only feed her if she agreed to sex acts.
In Georgia, the age of consent is 16, so Wysolovski could not be charged with child molestation or similar child sex abuse charges and could only be charged with child cruelty, which can be used for crimes against someone 17 and under.
Wysolovski pleaded guilty to the child cruelty charge because he caused “excessive physical pain during sexual intercourse,” officials said.
Prosecutor Michael DeTardo said the nature of the suspect’s relationship with the victim was in a “gray area” of consent due to the kinky nature of their sex acts and Georgia’s age of consent. He said getting a rape conviction would be risky if it went before a jury.
The victim’s family and DeTardo said a lifetime sex offender registration was a priority and Wysolovski’s attorney refused to accept a plea deal that included prison time, which led prosecutors to accept the deal with only time served.
The victim and the family also didn’t want to go through a trial, which would’ve been re-traumatizing, they said.
Wysolovski tried to say that he was helping the young woman escape a bad home situation but the judge shot back at him saying he didn’t see an ounce of remorse for his crimes.
“I can’t see even the most twisted definition of what you did as help,” Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge Timothy Hamil said.
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