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Lydia Gouardo

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Lydia Gouardo
Born (1962-11-13) 13 November 1962 (age 62)
Maisons-Alfort, Val-de-Marne
NationalityFrench
Known forBeing imprisoned, raped and tortured by her stepfather
Children9
Parents
  • Raymond Gouardo (stepfather) (father)
  • Lucienne Gouardo (stepmother) (mother)

Lydia Gouardo (born 13 November 1962) is a French woman, born in Maisons-Alfort, Val-de-Marne,[1] who was imprisoned for 28 years, raped, and tortured by her stepfather, Raymond Gouardo, in their home in Meaux and Coulommes in Seine et Marne. The abuse took place from 1971 to 1999.

Background and disappearance

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Lydia gave birth to six children, all by her father, who was born in Paris on 24 May 1937.[2] During her imprisonment, she escaped and phoned legal aid, but her stepfather recaptured her in a family residence in Melun.[1] She was finally freed on 20 November 1999 when her father died.[3] The abuse started when she was eight years old.[4]

Lydia claimed to have run away from her stepfather when he hit her too hard but was always brought back by the police when she was a minor. She claimed to have not realized that the abuse was unusual. She bears the scars of her torture from her neck to her ankles from where her captor burned her with boiling water and hydrochloric acid. She still lives in the same house with the attic where she was locked up in, but she does not venture up there anymore.[4]

Aftermath

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She wrote a book about her story, Le silence des autres (The Silence of Others), with the French journalist and writer Jean-Michel Caradec'h in 2008. She admitted that it was the worldwide news of the Fritzl case that made her talk; she said she wanted to be friends with Elisabeth Fritzl because she would feel less alone and she could support her.[4] Gouardo believes the world "ignored her ordeal" as an incest and abuse victim.[5] In her book she criticises the media and authorities for neglecting her case, if it were not for the Fritzl case.[6]

Her stepmother Lucienne was convicted in a closed-door trial for failure to report the crimes she was aware of and for sexual abuse against one of Lydia's children, and was given a three-year suspended jail sentence, however the prosecution appealed and her sentence was increased to a four-year suspended jail sentence.[7][8][9][4][10][11]

Police also suspect Raymond Gouardo in the murder of four other girls in the Paris area in 1987. Raymond's body was exhumed to extract his DNA for tests on one of the victims which have not shown any link with Gouardo and other evidence is circumstantial.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Millot, Ondine (9 May 2007). "Seule au coeur des ténèbres" (in French). Libération. Archived from the original on 2015-06-21. Retrieved 2015-06-21.
  2. ^ Zéro, Karl (1 June 2016). Étouffées: Quand la justice enterre les affaires (in French). Paris: L'Archipel. ISBN 978-2-8098-1820-8.
  3. ^ Vigroux, Sophie (11 May 2008). "En France, Lydia a vécu le même calvaire qu'Elisabeth Fritzl" [In France, Lydia went through the same ordeal as Elisabeth Fritzl]. La Dépêche du Midi (in French). Retrieved 28 October 2023.
  4. ^ a b c d "French Woman Reveals Incest Ordeal". Sky News. 2 May 2008. Archived from the original on 2015-06-21. Retrieved 2015-06-21.
  5. ^ "Incest victim says world ignored her plight". Independent Online (South Africa). 29 April 2008. Archived from the original on 2015-06-21. Retrieved 2015-06-21.
  6. ^ "European 'Fritzl's': Slovenian, Pole, Frenchman…". dalje.com. 18 March 2009. Archived from the original on 2015-06-21. Retrieved 2015-06-21.
  7. ^ De Larquier, Ségolène (29 April 2008). "En France, le drame de Lydia, torturée et six fois enceinte de son père, actualité Société - Le Point". www.lepoint.fr (in French). Archived from the original on 12 November 2014. Retrieved 2015-06-21.
  8. ^ De Laguerie, Henry (6 May 2008). "Abusée par son père pendant 30 ans, Lydia avait révélé son calvaire sur RTL" (in French). Archived from the original on 2015-06-21. Retrieved 2015-06-21.
  9. ^ « Condamnée pour avoir nié les viols de sa fille », Le Parisien, 13 March 2007.(in French)
  10. ^ "Lydia Gouardo". crime--europe.tumblr.com (in French).
  11. ^ "Lydia's incredible ordeal". ladepeche.fr. 13 March 2007. Archived from the original on 2021-03-04. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  12. ^ "Lydia Gouardo: Jaycee Lee Dugard "a intérêt à être solide"". World News (in French). 28 August 2009. Archived from the original on 2015-06-21. Retrieved 2015-06-21.
  13. ^ "Raymond Gouardo's body exhumed for a DNA sample". leparisien.fr (in French). 12 June 2009. Archived from the original on 2021-01-21. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  14. ^ "To rebuild his life, Jaycee Sugars had better be solid". nouvelobs.com. 28 August 2008. Archived from the original on 2022-05-18. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  15. ^ Gouardo, Lydia; Caradec'h, Jean-Michel (2008). Le Silence des autres. Neuilly-sur-Seine: Michel Lafon. p. 258. ISBN 978-2-7499-0795-6..
  16. ^ "Lydia Gouardo Compensated for her 28 years of ordeal". www.parismatch.com. 2012-11-22. Archived from the original on 2019-05-20. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  17. ^ "In Coulommes, incest around the corner". www.liberation.fr. 2014-11-26. Archived from the original on 2020-10-26. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  18. ^ "Lydia Gouardo: "J'aimerais que l'on pense un peu à moi"". www.20minutes.fr. 14 May 2012. Archived from the original on 17 March 2016. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
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