Elizabeth Smart gives birth to a baby girl

ELIZABETH Smart, who was rescued in 2003 after being kidnapped and sexually abused over nine months, has given birth to a baby girl.

Baby joy for kidnap survivor

SHE told People magazine that her “greatest aspiration” was to be a mother, and now it seems Elizabeth Smart’s dream has come true.

In fact, it came true three months ago.

Ms Smart’s life has been under the watchful eye of the media since being kidnapped and sexually abused over a nine month period when she was 14. But she and husband Matthew Gilmour managed to keep her pregnancy and the birth of their daughter, Chloe, quiet — and her father Ed Smart says she didn’t want it any other way.

Mr Smart told the Salt Lake Tribune that Elizabeth, now 27, did in fact give birth to a baby girl in February, but that, “It is totally private. This is something she is keeping to herself and not trying to have out there”.

Ms Smart was kidnapped from her Salt Lake City home in 2002, and rescued nine months later. A six-year court battle followed until her captor, Brian David Mitchell, and his wife, Wanda Barzee, were jailed on kidnapping and sexual assault charges.

Determined to use her experience to help others, Ms Smart founded the Elizabeth Smart Foundation to bring awareness to predatory crimes against children, and has travelled America giving speeches and seminars.

“I want people to know that I’m happy in my life right now,” she told the Associated Press.

“I also, even more so, want to reach out to people who might not be in a good situation. Maybe they’re in a situation that was similar to the one that I was in.”

Ms Smart married Matthew Gilmour in 2012, telling People at the time that, “We’ll start having kids and see how I handle that and then go from there. I don’t have a predetermined number in my head”.