They have called it scruffy, cheap and unloved. They have sneered at the wire mesh fences and unmowed lawns and the rusting trucks in almost every driveway. And in time, when the media writes the final chapters of the appalling story of Jaycee Lee Dugard, they may very well conclude that in Antioch, her story was simply an accident waiting to happen. A staggering registered sex offenders live here, in a small, blue-collar city in northern California that has suddenly found itself at the centre of an international media storm.
More than of them β , to be precise β live in the compact zip-code area containing the suburb that Jaycee Lee's alleged kidnapper, Philip Craig Garrido, called home. Two convicted rapists reside on Vine Lane, the street next to Walnut Avenue where Jaycee Lee's imprisonment and sexual abuse went unnoticed for almost two decades.
On Viera Avenue, less than yards away, is the home of Henry Lee Mickens, a year-old man who recently served time for "lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years old". Dozens of other paedophiles can be found within walking distance. A mile and a half from Garrido's front door is Gragnelli Avenue, where the occupant of No , one Shayne Patrick Gaxiola, was convicted of molesting a year-old girl and impregnating her in , when he was aged Gaxiola was also found guilty of giving marijuana to a string of pubescent girls.
He then took indecent pictures of them. In , three months after his release, he was sent back to prison for violating parole after being caught with cannabis and a stash of pornographic magazines.
In a town full of such men, the activities of Philip Garrido seemed simply to slip below the radar β despite the awful track record that has emerged since he and his wife, Nancy, were arrested and charged with 29 counts related to Jaycee Lee Dugard's abduction, imprisonment, and serial sexual abuse over 18 years to which, it must be stressed, they have so far pleaded not guilty. Court papers released yesterday from Garrido's trial for the kidnap and rape of a young woman in Nevada portray him as a dangerous sexual predator.
