Michelle Knight, one of the victims of Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro, told her abductor during a sentencing hearing on Thursday that he will spend eternity in hell.
“You took 11 years of my life away and I have got it back,”
Knight said through tears, according to USA Today. “I spent 11 years I hell, now your hell is just beginning. I will overcome all this that has happened, but 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 everyday.”
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The 53-year-old Castro pleaded guilty last week to 937 charges, including aggravated murder, rape, and kidnapping. The murder charge was tied to his punching and starving Knight until she miscarried. His plea kept him from facing the death penalty, but it landed him a sentence on Thursday of
life in prison, plus 1,000 years, with no chance of parole, CNN reported.
Castro admitted abducting Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus in separate incidents between 2002 and 2004. Investigators say Castro lured his victims into his car by promising them rides. CNN noted that court documents say Castro “serially abused (his victims) physically, emotionally, and sexually on a daily basis.”
Much of the evidence used against Castro came from diaries kept by the women.
Castro told the Cleveland court that the sex with his captives was consensual. He also said that he was plagued by an addiction to porn.
“These people are trying to paint me as a monster. I’m not a monster. I’m sick. My sexual problem, it’s so bad in my mind,”
Castro said in a statement to the judge that was aired by ABC News. “God as my witness, I never beat these women like they’re trying to say that I did. I never tortured them.”
He was getting no sympathy from the public.
“Ariel Castro is a scary psychopath. Manipulative, no remorse, no responsibility. It’s frightening,” tweeted @NomfundoEngler.
“I don’t wish Ariel Castro death cus that’s far too lenient,” tweeted Chris Greenburn (@ChrisTheChump). “I wish he could be alive for all 1000 years of his sentence in prison. Scumbag.”
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