American Fritzl Philip Garrido and wife on suicide watch in prison

London, Sep 1 (ANI): "American Fritzl" Philip Garrido and his wife Nancy, the alleged abductors of Jaycee Lee Dugard, are said to have been placed on a suicide watch in prison.

The couple have been kept in solitary confinement for their own protection, amid fears that other inmates could try to attack them, reports the Telegraph.

Guards at Contra Costa County Jail in Martinez, California, where Garrido, 58, is being held, are checking his cell every 15 minutes around the clock to make sure the former LSD addict does not try to kill himself.

He has been given shoes with no laces, is not allowed to wear a belt, and has to use paper towels.

Garrido is forced to eat his meals in his cell with a plastic knife and fork, watched over by a guard in case he tries to harm himself.

He is taken for daily exercise in the prison yard by two armed guards, but only after all the other inmates have gone back inside.

Garrido and his wife Nancy, 54, were arrested last week and charged with the kidnapping of Dugard, nearly two decades after the blonde schoolgirl was abducted in South Lake Tahoe in 1991 when she was just 11. (ANI)