'I feel guilty'

Woman who was kidnapped as a 11-year-old and held as a sex slave for 18 years tells family she feels guilty about 'bonding with kidnapper'

Woman who was kidnapped as a 11-year-old and held as a sex slaveu00a0 for 18 years tells family she feels guilty about 'bonding with kidnapper'

Jaycee Lee Dugard, now 29, was snatched from the street outside her parents' home aged 11, and had two children with her abductor Phillip Garrido, a convicted sex offender. He kept them in a secret compound at his home.

Her stepfather, Carl Probyn (60), said yesterday: "Jaycee feels really guilty for bonding with this man. There's really a guilt trip here."

That has led to speculation that Dugard exhibits the classic signs of Stockholm Syndrome (see box), a psychological disorder in which a captive comes over time to feel entirely dependant on, and even affectionate towards, his or her captor.

Bond with the Worst: Jaycee Lee Dugard feels guilty about not escaping from the clutches of Phillip Garrido and his wife Nancy

Dugard has spent the majority of her life in a series of hidden backyard sheds and tents at Garrido's home in Antioch, 170 miles from where she was abducted in Lake Tahoe.

Her daughters have never been to school or seen a doctor. Garrido (58) and his wife Nancy (54) are being held in custody.

Could have fled

Despite the elaborate lengths to which Phillip Garrido went to hide Dugard along with their two children, it has also emerged that he regularly exposed her to public contact. Several people have reported seeing Jaycee or Allissa, as Garrido called her.

Joseph Carver, a US psychologist with expertise in Stockholm Syndrome, said that Dugard's situation met all the criteria of such a reaction, but stressed it was a survival mechanism rather than anything to do with romance.

"If we think about it, her bonding with the kidnapping duo probably saved her life, as well as the lives of her two children," he said.

Carver added that recovery would probably take a long time, not only for Dugard but also for her children and her family.

Stockholm Syndrome

It is named after a bank robbery in Stockholm in 1972 in which the bank workers became emotionally attached to the criminals over a six-day hostage ordeal.

The most notorious case is probably that of Patty Hearst, granddaughter of the publishing magnate, William Randolph Hearst, who became a member of the outlawed Symbionese Liberation Army having been abducted by them. After two months in captivity, she actively took part in a robbery they were orchestrating.

Her unsuccessful legal defense suggested that she suffered from Stockholm Syndrome and was coerced into aiding the SLA. She was imprisoned for her actions.