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Lydia Gouardo

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Name
  
Lydia Gouardo


Lydia Gouardo smiling while wearing black jacket, earrings and necklace


Born
  
13 November 1962 (age 58), Maisons-Alfort, France

Similar
  
Natascha Kampusch, Fritzl case, Kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard

Psychiatrist dr daskalopoulos speaks with lydia gouardo


Lydia Gouardo (born November 13, 1962) is a French woman, born in Maisons-Alfort, Val-de-Marne, 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.

Contents

Lydia Gouardo wearing a black jacket, white top, earrings, and necklace

Lydia gave birth to six children, all by her father. During her imprisonment, she escaped and phoned legal aid, but her father recaptured her in a family residence in Melun. She was finally freed in 1999 when her father died. Abuse took place from when she was eight years old.

The book cover of Le silence des autres (French Edition) by Lydia Gouardo

Lydia claimed to have run away from her father 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, however she does not venture up there anymore.

On the left Lydia Gouardo wearing a white blouse while on the right         Dr. Daskalopoulos wearing a beige coat, long sleeves, and a necktie

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 described being behind shutters. She also said she wanted to be friends with Elisabeth Fritzl because she would feel less alone and she could support her. Gouardo believes the world "ignored her ordeal" as an incest and abuse victim. In her book she criticizes the media and authorities for neglecting her case, if it weren't for the Fritzl case.

Lydia Gouardo wearing a black jacket, white top, earrings, and necklace

Her stepmother 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 four-year suspended jail sentence.

Police also suspect Raymond Gouardo of being implicated in the murder of four other girls in the Paris area in 1987. DNA tests on one of the victims have not shown any link with Gouardo and other evidence is circumstantial.

28 ans de sequestration lydia gouardo temoigne mille et une vies


References

Lydia Gouardo Wikipedia


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