Life in prison for Ohio abductor

26 July 2013 Last updated at 14:29 ET Ariel Castro said he understood he would not leave prison alive

The Ohio man accused of raping and holding three women captive in his home for about a decade has agreed to a plea deal that will see him imprisoned for life without the possibility of parole.

Ariel Castro, 53, was arrested in May after one of the women escaped.

He abducted Michelle Knight, 32, Amanda Berry, 27, and Gina DeJesus, 23, from Cleveland streets between 2002-04.

Castro was charged with murder for beating and starving one of the women, who was pregnant, until she miscarried.

Following the hearing, a law firm representing the three women said they were “satisfied” with the resolution.

“Amanda, Gina, and Michelle are relieved by today’s plea,” the law firm Jones Day said.

No death penalty

In the courtroom in Cleveland, Ohio, on Friday morning, Judge Michael Russo repeatedly warned Castro he would never be let out of prison.

“Is that clear?” he asked Castro, who sat clad in an orange jail jumpsuit, his hands cuffed in front of him.

The three women were all taken from the same street between 2002-04

“I do understand that, your honour,” Castro, an unemployed school bus driver, replied. “I knew I was pretty much going to get the book thrown at me.”

Under the terms of the plea deal Castro will receive an additional prison sentence of 1,000 years and his property and other assets will be forfeited. He will also be classified as a sex offender.

The agreement protects him from further charges and from the death penalty.

The judge said there were plans to demolish the house where the women were held.

At the hearing, Castro told the judge he was abused as a child and said, “My addiction to pornography and my sexual problem has really taken a toll on my mind.”

Castro was charged with 977 counts including two of aggravated murder for the “unlawful termination” of one of the women’s pregnancies, as well as multiple counts of kidnapping and rape.

Other charges included gross sexual imposition, felonious assault and endangering children.

The three women were abducted after accepting car rides from Castro, police said. Neighbours said they did not think anyone had been living in the house where the women were imprisoned.

Brutal treatment

They were rescued from the house after Ms Berry kicked open a door while Castro was out of the house and was aided by a neighbour who heard her struggling and screaming.

The house where the women were found will be demolished, the judge said

When officials arrived they freed Ms Knight and Ms DeJesus, as well as Ms Berry’s six-year-old daughter, who was fathered by Mr Castro.

Ms Knight disappeared in 2002 when she was 20 years old. The following year Ms Berry vanished the day before her 17th birthday. Ms DeJesus went missing in 2004 at the age of 14.

While in captivity, one of the women became pregnant many times and suffered multiple miscarriages.

One woman also said that she was forced to help Ms Berry deliver her baby and was threatened with death if the baby did not survive.

Castro was accused of chaining the women to a pole in a basement, to a bedroom heater or holding them inside a van.

Prosecutors also said Castro garrotted one of the women with a vacuum cord after catching her trying to escape.

Months after their release, the three women appeared in a video thanking the public for their support. Otherwise, they have requested privacy and a speedy resolution to the case against Castro.

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Life in prison for Ohio abductor

"Eternity in hell" for Ohio abductor

1 August 2013 Last updated at 14:16 ET “My name is Michelle Knight and I would like to tell you what 11 years was like for me”

One of three women held in an Ohio home for about a decade has told their captor he will “face hell for eternity”, as he was jailed for life.

Michelle Knight, 32, wept as she delivered her victim impact statement before Ariel Castro.

The 53-year-old former school bus driver, who was imprisoned for life without parole plus 1,000 years, told the court he was not a monster.

The court heard he kept his victims chained up and repeatedly raped them.

The captives, Ms Knight, 32, Amanda Berry, 27, and Gina DeJesus, 23, were rescued in May after one of them escaped from the Cleveland home.

‘Happy person inside’

Passing sentence on Thursday, Judge Michael Russo told Castro there was no place in the world for people who enslave others.

In her statement, Ms Knight told how their captor went to church every Sunday, before coming home to “torture” the women.

Ariel Castro: “I’m not a monster, I’m a normal person, I am just sick, I have an addiction”

“I spent 11 years in hell. Now your hell is just beginning,” she said. “You will face hell for eternity.

“From this moment on, I will not let you define me, or affect who I am. I will live on, you will die a little every day.”

She was the only victim to speak at the hearing.

Castro then made a rambling statement to the court in which he blamed his sex addiction and the FBI for not properly investigating the kidnappings.

“I believe I am addicted to porn to the point that it really makes me impulsive and I just don’t realise what I’m doing is wrong,” he said.

The former bandsman continued: “To be a musician and to be a monster like you’re trying to say that I am – I don’t think I can handle that – I’m a happy person inside.”

He told the court that he had been “driven by sex”, adding: “I’m not a violent predator… I’m not a monster, I’m a normal person.

“I’m just sick. I have an addiction, just like an alcoholic has an addiction.”

He said he never planned to abduct the women, but acted on the spur of the moment when he kidnapped his first victim.

Castro also turned to their families and to Ms Knight to say he was “truly sorry”.

‘You saved us’

The hearing earlier heard testimony from policewoman Barbara Johnson, one of the officers who found the women.

She said that as she and another officer searched the darkened house, she shone a flashlight on herself so the women could see they were really police.

Judge Michael Russo: “There is no place in this world for those who enslave others”

Ms Knight “literally launched herself” into another officer’s arms, Ms Johnson said.

“And she just kept repeating, ‘you saved us, you saved us,’” the policewoman told the court.

But Ms DeJesus was initially too afraid to leave her room, she added.

Special Agent Andrew Burke testified that Castro would sometimes give his victims money after raping them. Then he would require them to pay him back if they wanted items from a store.

He said the home’s bedroom windows had been boarded shut from the inside, and locks were placed on the outside of the doors.

Several pairs of manacles, used to restrain the women, were found in the house.

Promise of a puppy

Castro abducted the three between 2002-04.

Continue reading the main story He lured one of them into his home with the promise of a puppy, and enticed another by inviting her to meet his daughter.

The judge banned Castro from ever seeing the daughter, now six years old, whom he fathered with one of the captives.

Other details of the women’s ordeals have already emerged.

Castro starved and beat one victim each time she was pregnant until she miscarried – five times.

He forced the same woman on threat of death to deliver safely the child he fathered with another victim on Christmas Day 2006.

He then raped the woman who had helped deliver his daughter.

There are plans to demolish the house where the three were held. They were rescued after Ms Berry kicked open a door and alerted a neighbour.

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"Eternity in hell" for Ohio abductor