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WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT Lydia Gouardo, 62, has spoken out about the horrific abuse she suffered at the hands of her stepfather, who sexually assaulted her and forced her to have six children with him
Frenchwoman Lydia Gouardo poses at home (Image: OLIVIER LABAN-MATTEI/AFP via Getty Images)
A woman has revealed her harrowing 28-year nightmare at the hands of her stepfather, during which she endured beatings, torture, sexual assault and was forced to bear six children with him.
Now 62, Lydia Gouardo suffered a reign of terror that began in 1971 when she was locked in an attic at just eight years old.
Despite managing to flee Raymond Gouardo's clutches on several occasions during the early years of her torment, French authorities repeatedly returned Lydia to her abuser, even as the attacks left her scarred with burns from boiling water and hydrochloric acid.
The abuse continued relentlessly until his death in 1999, all while going undetected in the quiet village of Crecy-la-Chapelle near Paris.
Her stepmother, Lucienne, also subjected Lydia to cruelty, with the ordeal beginning in childhood when her mother plunged her into scalding water, inflicting third-degree burns and preventing her from attending school, reports the Daily Star.
Frenchwoman Lydia Gouardo (Image: OLIVIER LABAN-MATTEI/AFP via Getty Images)
Lydia broke her silence about her ordeal in 2008. Speaking to French Radio RTL, she disclosed she was sexually assaulted "in the morning, in the evening and the night" by Raymond Gouardo.
She further revealed that her stepmother, Lucienne Gouardo, was fully aware of the abuse and would simply instruct her husband to "get on with it".
Lucienne Gouardo received a four-year suspended prison sentence for failing to prevent the abuse, yet Lydia believes the world largely ignored her devastating suffering.
She co-authored a book about her harrowing ordeal with French journalist Jean-Michel Caradec'h, entitled Le silence des autres (The Silence of Others), revealing that she only found the strength to speak out after the strikingly similar Josef Fritzl case in Austria came to light the previous year.
Josef Fritzl also kept his daughter locked up and raped her (Image: Getty Images)
Fritzl kept his daughter Elisabeth imprisoned for 24 years, subjecting her to comparable abuse and rape, which resulted in seven children.
In that case too, neighbours, teachers and social services all failed to detect the abuse or raise any alarm, despite her pregnancies and injuries being visible.
In Gouardo's book, she expressed her wish to meet Elisabeth so she could offer solace, having endured and overcome similarly devastating experiences.
Nevertheless, she also criticised the French and international media for initially disregarding her case, with coverage only emerging in the wake of the Fritzl affair.
Today, Gouardo lives in a small village just outside Paris, having brought up her nine children.
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She wears long clothing to conceal the acid burn scars on her body, yet maintains that she approaches life one day at a time.
She said: "I live from day to day. But I love life. When people complain, I say life is beautiful. I am fighting back now. When a bill comes through the door, I am happy. I am here, I exist."
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