San Francisco, Sep 2 (DPA) As police continued their search Tuesday of properties owned or managed by kidnap suspect Phillip Garrido, many mysteries remained about the man whom neighbourhood kids called 'Creepy Phil'.

Elsewhere, details began to emerge about the convicted sexual predator who allegedly snatched 11-year-old Jaycee Dugard in 1991, kept her in his backyard shed for 18 years and fathered two children with her.

Some of the information came from his own court testimony in his 1977 criminal trial for an earlier rape. Other allegations came from his first wife, who called him a 'monster' prone to drug-fuelled rages.

Most amazingly, Garrido painted an astonishing picture of his own world view in a blog he had written for two years and in documents he took to the FBI just days before his arrest on the latest rape and kidnapping charges.

Among that stack of documents were writings in which Garrido, 58, detailed his struggle with sexual urges, but claimed that he had conquered his desire to act on his fantasies.

'Certain behaviours cause a great deal of pain in myself and those who are victimised by those behaviours, especially our family and my wife,' he wrote.

That pain made him try to change from the predator he had become, he wrote, according to CNN. Garrido said he began forcing himself to look at attractive women but would not allow himself to act against them.

'I realised I never needed to act or do the things I used to believe was so great and stimulating,' Garrido wrote, claiming that he became filled with remorse and was sharing his 'salvation' to help other sexual predators turn their lives around.

That remorse came too late for some of his victims.