Tare wrote:
Presumably for some time she was locked in that shed, until such a time as she became compliant. Also, despite her future "freedoms" she was denied the freedom to live her childhood out, normally, amongst her family and people that cared for her. You cannot quantify what this douche has taken away from this young lady and to imply that she was somehow not as much of a victim is pretty sad.
I wasn't inferring that she is not a victim at all. Victim is a yes/no kind of word, it doesn't have degrees. She's definitely a victim and I can't begin to imagine the ordeal she's been through, but "trapped in a shed" (for 18 years) is not the case here. The reality of the situation, based on the information available, is not as severe as that.
What I am suggesting is that being trapped in a shed for 18 years would leave your psychological state nearly unsalvageable. In this situation with therapy she may have a chance at a decent life (what's left of it) because she will have had an amount of positive stimulus in her life (playing with her children, working at the printing house, seeing the sun, birthday parties for her kids etc). The lady that was trapped in a dungeon in Austria (?) with her children for most of her life didn't have those things, for example.
I would almost equivocate this to old style arranged marriages as far as her quality of life. Horrible, yes, but it could have been much, much worse.
What gets me is the guy is a known drug abuser and rapist, and the police/parole officers never thought to check the compound he'd built in his back yard during their visits?