The alleged kidnapper of a California girl and father of her two children while holding her captive for 18 years said that theirs was a "heartwarming" story, and that he slept with all three every night."You are going to be completely impressed," Phillip Garrido told KCRA television. "It's a disgusting thing that took place with me at the beginning. But I turned my life completely around and to be able to understand that, you have to start there."
Jaycee Lee Dugard, now 29, was finally found after she accompanied Phillip Garrido, a convicted sex offender and rapist, to a meeting with his parole officer.
Garrido, 58, is believed to have snatched Dugard off the streets of South Lake Tahoe, California in 1991 and fathered her two girls, now aged 11 and 15.
He and his 54-year-old wife, Nancy, were placed in police custody after being charged with kidnapping Dugard to commit rape.
{{/usCountry}}He and his 54-year-old wife, Nancy, were placed in police custody after being charged with kidnapping Dugard to commit rape.
{{/usCountry}}The pair were arrested on Wednesday by the FBI, Captain Daniel Terry of the Contra Costa County sheriff's office told AFP.
"Having those two girls -- they slept in my arms every single night -- from birth, I never kissed them, you have to take this a step at a time," Garrido said.
"What's kept me busy the last several years is I've completely turned my life around," Garrido told KCRA. "And you're going to find the most powerful story coming from the witness, the victim -- you wait."
"If you take this a step at a time, you're going to fall over backwards and in the end, you're going to find the most powerful heart-warming story."
"In the end, this is going to be a powerful, heartwarming story, one that you're going to be really impressed by," he insisted.
Dugard was kidnapped on June 10, 1991 by two occupants of a car before the eyes of her horrified stepfather Carl Probyn, who gave chase on a bicycle but failed to stop the abduction.