Cory Santiago is a boy who was molested by his stepfather Thomas Banks.
Background[]
Cory's father left him and his mother Eva with nothing, which resulted in the two of them having to go to a shelter. There, they met Thomas, who gave Eva sleeping pills to help her insomnia which she got from watching Cory and their stuff. But this was actually done so that Thomas could repeatedly molest Cory while Eva slept. Eventually, Eva and Cory moved in with Thomas. One night, Thomas asked Cory if he liked his new stuff and life, which Cory replied he did. Thomas told Cory he had been good to Cory and now Cory had to repay him. This resulted in Thomas taking pictures of Cory undressing which soon turned into videotaping. Cory kept quiet about this, afraid of going back to the shelter. Eventually, Thomas infected Cory with STD.
Hardwired[]
Cory and the Special Victims Unit crossed paths when a mother told all the parents at Cory's school that Cory had molested her son, to which Eva angrily assaulted her. In truth, Cory and his friend had wrestled naked when Cory slept over at his place. Huang came to the conclusion that Cory was being molested and his wrestling coach quickly became a suspect. However, when Detectives Benson and Stabler visited Cory's place and saw his frightened and uncomfortable reactions whenever Thomas touched him, the detectives knew that Thomas was Cory's abuser. Cory agreed to go undercover to uncover a pro child-adult relationship group who had dozens of pictures of child pornography in their possession, which got him harassed by Kevin O'Donnell, the groups ringleader. After Eva was released when she stabbed Thomas, Eva told the detectives to leave them alone. However, Eva agreed to testify against Kevin to lock up Kevin and Thomas. Huang brought in Cory while Eva was testifying, who shouted that Thomas had raped him and Kevin had made him do it before being tearfully taken out of the courtroom.
After Kevin and Thomas were imprisoned, Cory and Eva withdrew all of Thomas' money and sold the house. They thanked Benson for her help before moving back to Florida for a new start.