I was sent to an 'evil' wilderness therapy camp like Paris Hilton that was so strict a 12-year-old boy died there and these are some of my worst experiences

A woman who was sent to a the 'wilderness therapy' camp that was shut down this year after a 12-year-old boy suffocated to death says she was left with PTSD after being shamed, starved and emotionally abused at the facility.

Leanne Roberts was sent to Trails Carolina wilderness camp, which was sold as a 'therapy program for troubled youth', at just 12 years old while her parents were going through a divorce.

Roberts, now 19, has shared some of the horrors she and her fellow campers endured, claiming that food portions were restricted, talking was banned and that staff would host 'pee parties' to 'shame' children for needing to use the toilet.

She has recently been diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder and partially attributes her conditions to her time at Trails, which closed earlier this year after a 12-year-old boy suffocated to death in a faulty bivvy bag.

But dozens of wilderness camps continue to dot the American landscape, housing thousands of teens each year under the guise of providing therapy for everything from eating disorders to video game addictions.

Paris Hilton testified on Capitol Hill in June about the devastating experience she suffered at a troubled teen camp in Utah as she advocated for sweeping reforms to the foster and youth rehab system.

Roberts, from San Francisco, California, was sent to Trails in Lake Toxaway, North Carolina, from November 2017 until January 2018.

She says her parents received a recommendation to send her to the facility as they were going through their divorce.

'It was a really difficult time for me,' Roberts recalled. 'At the age of 12, I didn't realize why I was going and why I had to be sent there during the holidays - I didn't get it.'

The camp was sold to parents as a therapy program for children that offered a 'unique combination of backcountry expedition and base camp programming', but the reality was much harsher.

'It was portrayed to parents to be like summer camp but it was the opposite,' Roberts said. 'You went hiking and you weren't allowed to talk to anyone, you were timed in everything you did.

'They took a lot of things that are practiced in the military.

She added: 'It definitely wasn't roasting marshmallows by the fire.'

The now 19-year-old claims campers faced 'crazy' consequences for so-called 'bad behavior'. Children would have their food portions restricted, were banned from talking and forced to endure embarrassing 'pee parties'.

'The staff would get creative with what to take away when there was nothing left,' she explained, adding: 'If you needed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night you would have to wake up a member of staff.

'As a punishment, they would give you a pee party where the staff member would wake up everyone in the dorm to go and stand outside with you.

'It was used as a shame tactic, peers would rather wet themselves than wake everyone up.'

Roberts claims that Trails operated under the theme that nothing in life is given to you, alleging children had to earn the right to talk and have warm food.

She said: 'They give a big narrative about integrity and people being entitled. Gifts were not a thing, there was a lot of talk about accountability and integrity.

'From the first day, you were told that you don't deserve anything and nothing is given to you in life.

'We had to earn the right to talk and have warm food.'

She also claims that campers wouldn't be informed of the date or time unless it was Thanksgiving or Christmas. During the holidays, she claimed, children would take their socks off and use them as stockings to put notes in for each other.

'The staff were with us during the holidays and fortunately for that time they were great,' Roberts said. 'One of us decided to take one of our socks off on Christmas Eve and we all wrote compliments to each other.

'We would use our socks as stockings. Christmas morning, everyone was trying not to cry. The staff would be more lenient with us at Christmas and it was a bit of a slower morning.'

Trails Carolina closed earlier this year after the death of 12-year-old Clark Harman, who was directed to sleep in a fully enclosed bivvy sack.

Harman was already in rigor mortis by the time he was found dead by staff at the wilderness camp on the morning of February 3, the coroner's report states.

The boy, who the report says suffered from ADHD, migraines and social challenges, had arrived at the Lake Toxaway site hours earlier after being transported from his New York home by two escorts hired by his well-to-do parents.

Staff at the camp strapped him into what has been described by former Trails campers as a 'burrito-style' bivouac lying on a thick plastic tarp which they wrapped around the bivy, sealing the contraption with a lock and an alarm to stop him escaping.

With the bivy's mesh door broken, staff chose to seal up the whole thing by its outer layer, restricting the airflow and leaving them unable to see Harman as he died in the night, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner concluded in its findings.

In 2014, a 17-year-old boy died from injuries he sustained after running away from the camp.

Roberts says the camp was 'evil' and that she is 'shocked' it took so long to close down, adding that much of her early adult life has been spent healing and processing what she endured in wilderness camps.

'There has been so much trauma from growing up the way I did,' she said. 'Being there at such a young age has definitely impacted me.

'I have recently been diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder - I developed a lot of trauma. That place is evil, it was awful.'

After leaving Trails, Roberts was sent to two more camp, including a therapeutic boarding school where she stayed from February 2019 to June 2019.

She was then sent to Pacific Quest, Hawaii when she was 16 years old.

Roberts said: 'I think there is a lot of work that needs to be done in these systems.

'When I felt to Pacific Quest they did meet my basic needs - I felt safe and cared for.

'I had food three times a day, I got laundry, I had a bed to sleep in and I got to do the washing.

'The staff there were kind and well trained - it was done as best as it could in the system.'

Roberts has recently been diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder and partly puts it down to her time spent at Trails.

She said: 'I experienced emotional abuse but not the physical side of the abuse. Nobody ever put their hands on me but staff would be nasty and say horrible things.

'At that age, I was very much a people pleaser and I feel like because of that I was able to escape some of the negative attention from staff.

'Staff had a power trip.'

Roberts added: 'A lot of my early adult life has been dedicated to healing, rewiring my brain to destroy the false narratives that were pushed by the programs.

'I am much better, I am happy, I like my life - that is not something I could have said three or four years ago.'

Roberts is just one of several of the survivors of America's wilderness therapy camps who has spoken out against the industry which allegedly brutalizes children in the name of a bogus therapy.

Media personality and businesswoman Paris Hilton testified on Capitol Hill over the summer about the horrors she faced at Provo Canyon School in Utah.

'When I was 16 years old, I was ripped from my bed in the middle of night and transported across state lines to the first of four residential facilities,' Hilton told the House Ways and Means Committee in June.

'For two years I was force-fed medications and sexually abused by the staff. I was violently restrained ... stripped naked, thrown in solitary confinement,' the Hilton hotels heiress went on.

Hilton said her parents had been 'completely manipulated' by the facilities and were unaware of the treatment she was enduring. In the past her parents had been 'conned' into believe her ADD could be fixed with 'tough love.'

The Hilton hotels heiress focused her testimony on eradicating abuse in youth treatment facilities and urged for the reauthorization and reform of Title IV-B - which offers funding to states for community-based, prevention-oriented programs to support family reunification and permanency for children in foster care.

The program expired in 2021 and the Ways and Means Committee has been looking at ways to modernize it.