California kidnap accused deny charges (AFP)

[Yahoo! News]

AFP - A Californian couple has denied kidnapping an 11-year-old girl and keeping her as a sex slave for 18 years as questions mounted over how their alleged crimes went undetected for so long.

Phillip Garrido, 58, and his wife Nancy, 54, pleaded not guilty on Friday to 29 alleged offenses including kidnapping, rape and false imprisonment, following the discovery of Jaycee Lee Dugard on Wednesday, nearly two decades after the blonde schoolgirl was snatched outside her home in 1991.

Dugard, kidnapped at age 11, was confined in a makeshift prison of sheds and tents in what police have described as a "backyard within a backyard" at Garrido's home in Antioch, around 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of San Francisco.

On Thursday, police revealed that convicted rapist and registered sex offender Garrido had abused Dugard, now 29, and fathered her two daughters, now aged 15 and 11, who had also been kept in the compound.

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The shocking revelation has left many questioning how Garrido's crimes went undetected for so long, even after neighbors alerted local police that children appeared to be living in a complex of tents behind his home.

Police in Contra Costa County admitted Friday that they had received a tip in November 2006 and failed to follow it up properly.

Sheriff Warren Rupf issued an apology over the missed opportunity to rescue Dugard, saying law enforcement officials were distraught over their failure to discover Garrido's crimes earlier.