Jaycee Lee Dugard will testify at the trial of the California man accused of kidnapping and raping her during her 18 years in captivity, a lawyer for her family said on Thursday.
Dugard, 29, who bore two daughters to convicted rapist Phillip Garrido following her 1991 abduction, understood that she would need to give evidence against her tormentor at a future trial, lawyer McGregor Scott said.
“I’m confident in saying that, if this case does proceed to trial, Jaycee will, in all likelihood, be a witness for the prosecution,” Scott told CBS television’s Early Show.
“She’s aware of that, and understands that,” Scott said. “That day is a long ways away from right now, so she’s got a lot of time to continue with the mending and the healing and the rehabilitation she’s going through now.”
Dugard was discovered alive last month nearly two decades after she was snatched as an 11-year-old in South Lake Tahoe, California. Garrido is alleged to have kept her captive in a squalid secret backyard compound of sheds and tents. The registered sex offender and his wife have been charged with 29 counts, including kidnapping and rape.
Scott said Dugard “clearly understands that some very bad and terrible things were done to her, and the people that committed those crimes need to be held accountable.”
Meanwhile, Dugard’s mother, Terry Probyn, appealed for her family to be given privacy as they continue to rebuild their lives.
“All of us are doing very well under the circumstances. What we need most right now is to be allowed to become a family again within a zone of privacy and security,” she said.
The statement came after a 63-year-old man held a press conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday claiming to be the biological father of Jaycee. Ken Slayton said he had a brief relationship with Probyn in 1979 and that he was willing to take a paternity test to prove he was Jaycee’s father.
A spokeswoman for the Dugard family told the Los Angeles Times in a statement that Slayton’s claims had “come as a big surprise.”
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