Cami Deserved Better & Still Does
In the FR post, The Unseen Keith & Cami Texts: Camila Had a More Nuanced Relationship Than Selected Texts at Trial, I wrote, “When t[the prosecution] showed the [passport] photo of 18-year-old Camila to the jury and then began to read the texts of hers at age 24, I chuckled, for it was a clever trick of the prosecution, gamesmanship that many, but not all, prosecutors play, to lie by omission, and it was permitted to go unchecked.”
A concerned commenter wrote in response with more to say about Camila. Interspersed with Concerned’s commentary, are Camila’s words at the sentencing hearing of Keith Raniere where she asked the Court “to take my12 years of abuse and the effects of that abuse that I continue to experience today into consideration in sentencing him.”
By Concerned
The photos used in court are very often dated. Booking photos used in court will at times show a young teenager, not the now 25-year-old on trial. Or a high school photo of a defendant wearing a cap and gown will be submitted, not the tatted-up gang member they became in the ensuing three years before the crime for which they are presently on trial was committed.
Using an official passport photo of Camila was smart. There’s no context to make it appear slanted toward a certain “image” of Cami. It also has the documented date it was taken.
Unless everyone in a criminal case poses for headshots right before the trial, the lawyers on both sides are going to use what’s available to them—big deal.
Keith Raniere, government exhibit photo.
The texts between Camila and Keith mostly reveal how juvenile and needy Keith behaved. And piggish. How many times does Cami have to say she wants no part of a threesome?
It doesn’t matter if Keith had eventually married Cami. When Keith took sexually explicit photos of Cami and sexually abused her at 15. – Keith committed crimes. It would have been no different than any other religious cult leader abusing minors and later marrying them. When the sexual relationship began, it was a minor child and a middle-aged, disgusting cult leader in a position of unquestioned authority.
Camila, at the sentencing hearing: He would often take me to his executive library, where he would ask me to take my clothes off before coming up the stairs to the loft as he watched. During these secret meetings, when I was still 15, he took naked pictures of me.
Concerned: Cami was isolated during her formative years. She was mentally, emotionally, and physically abused from the age of 13.
Camila: I met him when I was just 13, and from the start, I did not feel comfortable around him. I would even try to avoid being in the same room as him, but the adults around me would get mad at me for being rude and push me back towards him. This felt like a violation and a betrayal from the very people that were supposed to protect me.
The very first time I was left to have a conversation alone with him, we talked about how I placed second on my eighth-grade spelling bee contest. I continued to avoid him after that for some time, but years later, he told me how he knew I was special from the moment we met at 13.
Concerned: Cami had sexually graphic blackmail on her since she was 15 years old. In her victim impact statement, you could feel the power over Cami and the shame those explicit sexual photos still held.
Camila: The experience of being photographed is seared into my memory. As a 15-year-old, that is not something you easily forget. He would have with me some type of sexual contact during every meeting. He wanted to take a picture with no exception.
Concerned: Nothing about Cami’s life from age 15 on was healthy. Cami was sexually exploited and estranged from her family.
Camila: He first had sex with me on September 18, 2005. He would expect me to celebrate September 18th as our anniversary together every year. That first time, which was my first time, I was 15. He was 45…
He told me keep it all a secret, immediately severing me from my family and friends and effectively making himself my only resource. Beginning at that time, he would ask me to sneak out of the house that I was living in to meet him at places where we were isolated, as well as from everyone else, so that he could have sex with me.

Concerned: She had an eating disorder.
Camila: He exerted an intense amount of pressure on me regarding my weight, which resulted in an eating disorder that has been a lifelong battle and has caused me ongoing health problems.
When I was 15, I was a normal teenager who had a normal relationship with food and exercise, but he destroyed that. As soon as we started having sex, he started asking me my weight every single day, and this continued into my adulthood…
I’m 5’5,” and his goal for me was to weigh 100 pounds or less. Today I try not to think about my weight, but I still hear his voice in my head, and it continues to be a daily struggle.
After experiencing threatening physical symptoms because of the eating disorder, some of which I have yet to fully recover from, I asked for outside professional help, but his answer was always, “lose the weight first.” These are words that were burned into my memory because of the desperation and the hopelessness that I felt being met with such a heartless response.
Concerned: She tried to kill herself. This was a human in severe anguish and crisis. Did she still have a “good” day or laugh sometimes? Of course. Did she develop coping skills to survive the insanity of her life? No doubt.
Camila: He drove me to the point of a suicide attempt with his cold-mind games. That night, when he finally, in a state of shock with blood running down my arms, one of the first things out of his mouth was, “Do you know how bad it could have been for me if you had killed yourself?”
His first thought was always of himself and the potential exposure of his secret, even when I was in extreme distress. He acknowledged that the right thing would be for me to go to a hospital and be placed under psychiatric evaluation. I would have welcomed that help and a break from his cruelty.
Instead, he asserted his capability that he could help me better than any trained professional. He continued the mind games and did not allow me to seek outside help. I really thought he would let me go after that. Instead, he tightened his grip and brought in more people to keep me in check. It felt like I would never be free. There was no way out.
Concerned: Appeasing Keith was probably somewhat of a reflexive action. Cami probably didn’t want to end up siloed in a room like Daniela. Or otherwise tormented and punished.
Camila: He knew exactly what he was doing. He even asked me at some point if having his initials on my body would keep me from being with other people. He drew pleasure from knowing he had marked me. I was his….

Concerned: Cami is to be respected for trying to have any autonomy or take even a tiny stand against child sexual predator Raniere. However, Cami is probably still sifting through the damage and manipulation she endured in her childhood.
Camila: While he hid our sexual relationship from others, he explained it to me by telling me I was very mature for my age, and the flattering and the romance of hearing that when you’re a teenager; I know now that it was false. I was a child. I also know that it was no excuse to rob me of my youth or to interrupt my life the way he did. He used my innocence as — my innocence to do whatever he wanted with me, not just sexually but also psychologically.
He manipulated me into what he wanted for his own reasons, for his own pleasure. He was calculated and methodical in the way he tricked me into a relationship and the way he manipulated me for every second of my life. He groomed me in his eyes. He shaped my being to his liking, or mine, he said.
Concerned: It’s unlikely that Cami has even yet decided what (if any) choices really were hers during the Albany years. And it’s so complicated with her sisters and Keith. And Cami’s parents and Keith. And Cami’s brother and Keith.
Cami’s nephew is the son of the man who raped her as a teenager and created child pornography starring her at 15 years old, for God’s sake. That’s a lot for any human to sort out.

I left in 2017 thanks to my sister… I was distrustful of almost everyone, including my own family…. I continue to carry scars, physical and emotional and psychological to this day. Because he manipulated me into a sexual relationship, I carry the pain and shame of aborting a child at his direction, which is something that would haunt me every day and a wound that will never heal….
I hold scars on my body from him that can never be erased. They carry immense emotional and psychological pain. They are a reminder of his cruelty and manipulations….
I also have cervical dysplasia, which is a precancer in my cervix from the HPV virus. Every step of the procedure has been traumatic because it reminds me of the way in which he violated my being. The lasting effects of his abuses of me include threatening my ability to have a family in the future in a normal manner and having to deal with long-lasting medical effects….
I feel the mental and emotional and physical consequences of his abuse every single day….
Please leave a comment: Your opinion is important to us!
Keith is a sexual predator who committed so many crimes and did so much psychological and physical damage to camila and her sisters. I cry hearing and reading the things he did. He is a pedophile and used the trust their family had to manipulate groom and abuse them. How anyone can talk about anything else is mind blowing to me. What these sisters endured was horrific and I just hope they can make a life and move on in future. They are so smart and talented.
You know, I dont like this guy BUT regarding cervical dysplasia how does anyone know Camila contracted that from Kieth?
Didnt she admit to a relationship with Robbie as well, who supposedly also was enticed by Nicole ( what transpired there?)
Also that condition generally is easily treated by cyroplasty? A one time freezing treatment by a competent gynecologist, NOT years of ongoing treatment…JS.
and certainly NOT an indication of not being able to conceive children in the future.
This is the same kind of hysteria as Frank’s writing (and Sarah E.) expressed concern that this brand was somehow deliberately placed over fallopian tubes which would lead to sterilization, disproved by the delivery of a healthy baby boy (her 2nd child)
Also, HPV is widespread and 75% of the population is known to have at least one experience with it in their lifetime. Ask Alexa if you doubt it.
Calm down, 10:39am & 12:40pm with your nasty cootie parts. This post isn’t about your warty genitals.
Sure. Sure. Everyone’s got an STD.
No one’s hysterical but you two.
This is one person’s account of her own medical situation. You are not her gynocologist.
I know and nobody’s interested in facts, gotcha!
But perhaps these facts would help Camila understand she’s not destined to be motherless unless she chooses to be
Just seems like $500k? would be more than enough to compensate for this one treatment and that Keith was already ordered to pay IS justice personified.
Frank has stated the gov’t seems to be looking into expediting the money Clare has already paid!
Suing others in a civil case using this ailment as a main point (knowing she freely admitted to an affair with Robbie) which I believe was her prerogative, nonetheless is a can of worms that will set a horrific precedent for future litigations.
“Nobody’s interested in facts”. Hyperbolic and cliche response.
The “facts” are that it’s not your body.
It’s a disease. It can cause cancer. It requires lifetime invasive monitoring. There are extra pelvic exams yearly. It will affect all other future sexual partners. And it can absolutely affect fertility.
Your closing statement is typical “this is about all freedom and America” Nxivm hype.
Let this case play out. If you’re right – you’re right.
I think it’s a perfectly valid civil suit. Cami more than any other claimant has a case. That’s just my opinion. I won’t be deciding the case. Nor will you.
Have a good day.
Off Topic, but…
Excerpt from the Sarah Lawrence Sex Cult Trial: “Ms. Drury said she was forced by Mr. Ray to work as a prostitute from early 2015 until spring 2019, living in hotels, seeing up to five men a day, seven days a week, and charging them up to $2,000 for an hour. She testified that she gave the money to Mr. Ray and Isabella Pollok, his “trusted lieutenant” who has been charged with conspiring with him to commit sex trafficking, extortion and racketeering. In those years, Ms Drury earned $2.5 million which she gave to Mr. Ray.”
It seems Mr. Ray had his own flying monkey (AKA “trusted lieutenant”) and if Keith had turned his Vancouver actresses into prostitutes, I wonder how much money could they have earned for him?
Frank, you ended this predator’s and other predators’ free reign on this earth. You are working toward another noble goal of destroying the corrupt Connecticut Family Court system. The truth cannot be hidden any longer. Thank you, Ken
Meanwhile in the UK, a Vicar seems to have liked branding and caning a slave…
https://mol.im/a/10652615
Pyriel-
Incredible sad and disturbing.
An excellent article! Thank you, Concerned and Frank.