$20m for Dugard's years in captivity

A woman held captive for nearly two decades by a rapist out on parole will receive $20m (£13m) from the state of California for her ordeal, during which she bore two children to the man whom officials were supposedly monitoring.

Lawmakers approved the settlement for Jaycee Dugard, now 30, and her two daughters. She resurfaced last August after being held in a secret backyard by a suspect identified by authorities as Phillip Garrido.

"It is compensation for three people for the rest of their lives who have been horribly damaged over a period of 17 or 18 years," mediator Daniel Weinstein said. Ms Dugard and her daughters, aged 12 and 15, filed claims in February, saying parole officers began supervising Garrido in 1999 but didn't discover them.

The money will be used to buy a home, ensure privacy, pay for education, replace lost income and cover what is likely to be years of therapy. "It was not an effort to make reparations for the years of abuse and incarceration... the damages to these people were incalculable," Mr Weinstein said. "Part of this was a prudent effort by the state to shut off liability from a catastrophic verdict."