Lydia Gouardo (born 13 November 1962) is a French woman, born in Maisons-Alfort, Val-de-Marne,[1] 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.
[2] During her imprisonment, she escaped and phoned legal aid, but her stepfather recaptured her in a family residence in Melun.
[4] Lydia claimed to have run away from her stepfather when he hit her too hard but was always brought back by the police when she was a minor.
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.
Raymond's body was exhumed to extract his DNA for tests on one of the victims which have not shown any link with Gouardo and other evidence is circumstantial.