PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) – Several new laws take effect in Virginia, beginning Saturday, July 1. Among them is one that brings harsher punishment for people who abduct children.
Martin Andrews was rescued in the woods in Suffolk back in 1973. At the age of 13, he was abducted and spent eight horrific days chained in a box, where he was raped and beaten by a man he didn’t know.
Virginia lawmakers want strangers who abduct children to do hard time. The new law changes the punishment from a Class 5 felony to a Class 2 felony. As a Class 2, the punishment is life in prison or a minimum of 20 years. As a Class 5 felony, the punishment was one to ten years in prison, or a court decision.
Andrews shares his story to bring awareness to the issue and to prevent it from happening to anyone else.
He says his nightmare started when his abductor asked him to move furniture.
“I got in his van thinking it was just around the corner and he took off towards the interstate. And I, you know, I didn’t really want to go that far. Then we get out of the middle of nowhere and then you know, and we’re inside this box and he tells me I’m being kidnapped you know, and it just, you know, my blood ran cold, you know, but you know, he was strong and I was small. It was horrible in that box and with him,” Andrews told WAVY.
Andrews has helped get a law funded that places sexual predators into a psychotherapy program which has lowered the reoffending rate.