US kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard has said her life was stolen when she was abducted by Phillip and Nancy Garrido at the age of 11, and she hated every second of her 18 years in captivity.Now 31, she made her first public statement, read in court by her mother, as the Californian couple were sentenced for kidnapping and rape.Nancy Garrido, 55, received 36 years to life, and her husband 431 years.Phillip Garrido, now aged 60, had two children with his victim.Ms Dugard was kept with her two daughters, now 13 and 16, in the backyard of the Garrido home in Antioch, California, in a compound of tents and sheds.In April the couple pleaded guilty, meaning that Ms Dugard did not have to appear in court.As part of the deal the Garridos made with prosecutors, both waived their right to appeal.The judge described their treatment of Ms Dugard as evil and reprehensible.Nancy Garrido’s lawyer, Stephen Tapson, requested that she be allowed to see her husband one last time and remain in the court for his sentencing, but the judge refused, AFP news agency reported.The couple, wearing orange jumpsuits, kept their heads down as Ms Dugard’s statement was read.They made no eye contact with Ms Dugard’s family.”I chose not to be here today because I refuse to waste another second of my life in your presence,” Ms Dugard said in her statement, directed at Phillip Garrido. “Everything you ever did to me was wrong and I hope one day you will see that.”I hated every second of every day for 18 years,” she added. “You stole my life and that of my family.”
The kidnap victim said she was doing well now, and Phillip Garrido “did not matter any more”.Mr Tapson also read out a statement on behalf of his client, in which she acknowledged that what she did was “evil”, that she was sorry and “words are not enough”.Ms Dugard is due to have a memoir published next month.Police in California came under fire after Ms Dugard’s discovery and freedom in 2009 because Phillip Garrido had a previous conviction for rape, involving an abduction, and was on the sex offenders’ list.Ms Dugard was freed after police officers at the University of California at Berkeley saw Garrido on the campus with her and her children and became suspicious.They contacted Garrido’s parole officer and he was detained at a parole hearing.Ms Dugard has received a $20m (£12m) settlement from the state of California, which has acknowledged repeated mistakes in the monitoring of Phillip Garrido. – BBC
