The Cleveland Captive Teens Case

Castro Pleads Guilty

A man accused of imprisoning three women in his home and subjecting them to rapes and beatings for a decade avoided the death penalty, pleading guilty in a deal that will keep him in prison for life.

The women's escape from Ariel Castro's Cleveland home two months ago at first brought joy to the Ohio city, where they had become household names after years of searches, publicity and vigils. Then there was despair at revelations of their treatment.

"The captor is now the captive," prosecutor Tim McGinty said Friday.

The rescue of the women brought shocking allegations that Castro fathered a child with one of the women, induced five miscarriages in another by starving and punching her, and assaulted one with a vacuum cord around her neck when she tried to escape.

Castro told the judge he was addicted to pornography, had a "sexual problem" and had been a sexual abuse victim himself long ago.

He pleaded guilty to 937 counts in the deal, which sends him to prison for life without parole, plus 1,000 years. Prosecutors agreed to take a possible death penalty charge off the table.

Castro, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and a bushy beard, was far more engaged than in previous court appearances when he mostly kept his head down and eyes closed. He answered the judge's questions in a clear voice, saying he understood that he would never be released from prison and adding that he expected he was "going to get the book thrown at me."

"I knew that when I first spoke to the FBI agent, when I first got arrested," he said.

Castro, who was born in Puerto Rico, said he could read and understand English well but had trouble with comprehension.

"My addiction to pornography and my sexual problem has really taken a toll on my mind."

At the end of the 2 1/2-hour hearing, the judge accepted the plea and declared Castro guilty. Sentencing was set for Thursday.

The women said in a statement they were relieved by the conviction.

"They are satisfied by this resolution to the case, and are looking forward to having these legal proceedings draw to a final close in the near future," said the statement released on their behalf.

Gina DeJesus, Amanda Berry and Michelle Knight disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16 and 20 years old. Each said they had accepted a ride from Castro, who remained friends with the family of one of the women and even attended vigils over the years marking her disappearance.

He was accused of repeatedly raping, beating and restraining the women, sometimes chaining them to a pole in a basement, to a bedroom heater or inside a van.

Castro fathered a 6-year-old daughter with Berry, now 27, authorities said. On the day the child was born, Christmas 2006, Castro raped one of the other women, who had helped deliver the baby.

Prosecutors will recommend at the sentencing hearing that Castro have no contact with the girl he fathered. McGinty said there's "zero chance" he'll ever be allowed to see the girl.

Berry told authorities that she, her child and the other women never saw a doctor during their captivity. Knight, now 32, said her five pregnancies ended after Castro starved and repeatedly punched her.

The women escaped Castro's house May 6 when one of them kicked out part of a door and called to neighbors for help. Castro was arrested within hours and has remained behind bars.

McGinty said the county will use more than $20,000 seized from Castro to tear down his house within a month, and two abandoned houses next door will be razed and a vacant lot acquired for a park.

Castro's uncle, Julio Castro, who has run a nearby corner store for 44 years, said the ordeal will be with the family the rest of their lives.

"He's getting what he deserves," Castro, 77, said.


Source : Sapa-AP /dm
Date : 27 Jul 2013 07:57
 
A life behind bars is just punishment for Ariel Castro, who has pleaded guilty to kidnapping three women and holding them as sex slaves for a decade, his son said Monday.

"I think it's the best possible sentence," Anthony Castro told NBC television's "Today" program, three days after his 53-year-old-father entered a guilty plea in an Ohio court and accepted a life sentence.

"I think if he can't control his impulses, and he really doesn't have any value for human life ... then behind bars is the way he belongs for the rest of his life," he said.

Castro was arrested on May 6 after 27-year-old missing woman Amanda Berry managed to escape from his home in Cleveland along with a young child she bore in captivity.

Police arrived at the scene and rescued Michelle Knight, 32, and Gina DeJesus, 23, from the house. All three had been kidnapped separately, held at the house, chained up and repeatedly raped.

By agreeing Friday to a prison term of more than 1,000 years on top of the life sentence, Castro dodged the risk of the death penalty.

His son remembered him as "incredibly strict" and temperamental: "He wasn't, you know, a monster 24/7, but if you crossed him, there would be consequences. Those, more often than not, would be physical consequences."

He also said he has no plans to visit his father in prison, stating: "I have no trust in him. I can't see myself going to visit him and giving him the opportunity to face me and lie to me again."


Source : Sapa-AFP /mm
Date : 30 Jul 2013 00:25
 
Kidnap Victims described their torment in diaries

Diaries kept by three young women held captive for a decade in an Ohio home helped US prosecutors describe their suffering in a memo released ahead of their tormentor's sentencing hearing Thursday.

The entries spoke of rape, vicious beatings, of being chained to a wall and locked in a dark room, of "being treated like an animal," of "anticipating the next session of abuse," and of "his threats to kill," prosecutors said.

The women also wrote of "dreams of some day escaping and being reunited with family," of "missing the lives they once enjoyed" and of their overwhelming desire for freedom.

Their tormentor, Ariel Castro, last week agreed to plead guilty and spend the rest of his life in prison with no chance of parole in exchange for prosecutors taking the death penalty off the table.

The former school bus driver, 53, is expected to speak about his catalogue of crimes when he is formally sentenced Thursday.

"Although he admits his disgusting and inhuman conduct, the defendant remains remorseless for his actions," Cuyahoga county prosecutor Timothy McGinty wrote in the sentencing memo released late Wednesday.

At least one of Castro's victims -- Michelle Knight, 32 -- may also deliver a statement by video or even in person, CNN reported.

Knight was the first to be snatched off the street in 2002 when she was 20. Next came Amanda Berry, kidnapped the night before her 17th birthday in 2003. Then came Gina DeJesus who was just 14 and a friend of Castro's daughter when she was abducted in 2004.

The stunning case came to light after Berry managed to escape with her six-year-old daughter by calling out to a neighbor for help through a locked front door on May 6.

For years, the women were kept chained by their ankles in locked rooms in Castro's house in a working class neighborhood of Cleveland.

They were rarely given access to the bathroom and instead had to relieve themselves in plastic buckets that were "emptied infrequently," prosecutors said.

Knight was impregnated four times during her 11 years of captivity. Castro terminated at least one of the pregnancies by starving her for days and then kicking and jumping on her stomach.

Berry was allowed to carry a pregnancy to term, giving birth in a plastic kiddie pool on Christmas Day, 2006.

The chains eventually came off once Castro had terrified his victims into "subservience," allowing the women to occasionally share "faith and friendship," the court documents said. But the locks remained and Castro would beat them whenever they tried to escape.

Among his many threats and manipulations were dire stories of other victims who never made it home and his desire to hunt for "replacements."

Castro admitted that he "did not have an exit strategy" and claimed he "gave them all a chance to escape" by leaving the door to Berry's room unlocked, prosecutors said.

DNA tests showed that Castro fathered Berry's child. He has asked Judge Michael Russo to allow him to see her, a request the judge deemed "inappropriate."

Prosecutors said they relied on the diaries for many of the 977 criminal charges lodged against Castro.

Berry intially addressed her entries to her mother, according to a report by a psychiatrist who evaluated the women. After learning of her mother's death, she wrote to soothe her mother's spirit in heaven.

Police do not understand why none of the people who visited the unassuming house at 2207 Seymour -- including Castro's family and girlfriend -- realized what was going on there.

Castro's adult children and two brothers -- who had to go into hiding after being briefly detained as suspects -- have publicly condemned and disowned him.

His victims have begged the media and public to respect their privacy and give them time to heal. In a statement last week they said they were "relieved" by the plea deal and "satisfied by this resolution to the case."

In a video released by a public relations firm last month, the women put on brave faces and thanked their supporters.

"I want everyone to know how happy I am to be home with my family, my friends. It's been unbelievable," said Berry, who made no mention of her daughter. "I am getting stronger each day, and having my privacy has helped immensely."

Knight said she did not want to be consumed by hatred and was looking forward to her "new life."

"I may have been through hell and back, but I am strong enough to walk through hell with a smile on my face, and with my head held high and with my feet held firmly on the ground," she said, reading slowly and carefully from her notes.

DeJesus seemed the most cautious of the three, simply thanking people for their support.


Source : Sapa-AFP /mm
Date : 01 Aug 2013 05:26
 
all 3 of these women will be able to move forward with their lives because they harbor no hatred torwards their abductor and tormentor. i take my hat off to them. but i hope that when he finally is released amongst the prison population his life will be worth nothing and the torment he displayed towards these girls now women will be given to him.

sadly this won't be the last we hear of cases like this.
 
Castro will never leave prison: Judge

Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole Thursday for kidnapping three women and holding them captive for a decade in his Ohio home.

Judge Michael Russo imposed the hefty sentence for an aggravated murder charge laid after Castro forcibly terminated the pregnancies of one of his captives.

He also imposed stiff penalties for hundreds of others charges including rape and kidnapping.


Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 01 Aug 2013 19:33
 
Kidnap victim insists she will recover

With tears pouring down her face, Michelle Knight vowed Thursday that she will recover from 11 years of captivity and torment in an Ohio home.

"I will overcome all of this that happened," said Knight, who was among three young women held captive for a decade by 53-year-old unemployed Cleveland man Ariel Castro.

"You will face hell for eternity," the 32-year-old told Castro at his sentencing hearing.

"From this moment on I won't let you define me or affect who I am. You will live. I will live on. While you die a little every day as you think about the 11 years and atrocities you inflicted on us."

In a deal which will have him spend the rest of his life in prison without the chance of parole, Castro has pleaded guilty to kidnapping and abusing the young women.


Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 01 Aug 2013 18:34
 
Cleveland kidnapper Castro commits suicide

http://www.timeslive.co.za/world/2013/09/04/cleveland-kidnapper-castro-commits-suicide

Ohio corrections officials say Ariel Castro who held three women captive in his home for nearly a decade has committed suicide at a state prison facility.

Spokeswoman JoEllen Smith says the 53-year-old Castro was found hanging in his cell around 9:20 p.m. Tuesday at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient.

Prison medical staff performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation before Castro was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The three women disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16 and 20 years old. They escaped May 6, when one of the women broke part of a door and yelled to neighbors for help. Castro was arrested that evening.

Castro was sentenced August 1 to life in prison plus 1 000 years on his guilty plea to 937 counts including kidnapping and rape.
 
YingYang said:
Well, he won :(
Click to expand...

Well...
1) Taxpayers won't have to pay to keep the guy sustained in better conditions than many innocent people live in.
2) Depending on your religion he's either completely ceased to exist, in hell, or reborn as a haemorrhoid on Michael Moore.
 
oh wow, proof that the women he held captive for all those years were far stronger than he was after all. may you feel the flames of hell forever more.
 
Few tears shed for US rapist Castro after apparent suicide

Few tears have been shed over the apparent suicide of Ariel Castro, who endured just a month in prison before ending his life but had held three women as sex slaves for a decade.

At least one psychologist said those three women, with Castro dead, are now being denied a sense of justice, as he got to choose his fate whereas they did not.

Castro, 53, was found hanged Tuesday in the Ohio prison where he was serving a life sentence.

It was an abrupt ending to a sordid case that shocked the United States and the world with revelations of depravity and brutality carried out in an ordinary Cleveland home.

Castro was being held in protective custody, which means he was in a cell by himself and guards checked on him every 30 minutes.

Officials tried in vain to resuscitate Castro after his body was discovered at 9:20 pm Tuesday (0120 GMT Wednesday) at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient. He was pronounced dead about 90 minutes later.

Castro was sentenced to life in prison plus an additional 1,000 years for the repeated rape and beatings of his victims.

His crimes -- committed when he imprisoned the women in a so-called 'house of horrors' -- led to an outpouring of national pity for the three victims, Amanda Berry, now 27; Gina DeJesus, 23; and Michelle Knight, 32.

They were abducted separately between 2002 and 2004 at the ages of 14, 16, and 20 and held captive in a working class neighborhood of Cleveland.

Berry, DeJesus and Knight did not immediately release a statement in reaction to Castro's death. However prosecutors called him a degenerate molester and said he took the coward's way out.

"This man couldn't take, for even a month, a small portion of what he had dished out for more than a decade," said Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty in a scathing statement.

However, Dr. Linda Papadopoulos, a Britain-based-based psychologist and author, called Castro's suicide a last slap to his victims.

"Going forward now these girls are going to have to find a way of healing without a sense of justice," Papadopoulos told NBC news.

"We want the sense of justice when we heal. Sometimes we have to heal without it, and sadly that is what they will have to do."

She added: "He decided his fate, something they were never ever ever able to do for themselves. He had ultimate control. To some extent this was in a way his last slap to their faces - 'I've got this over you'."

Comments posted on the website of the main Cleveland newspaper, The Plain Dealer, were merciless.

"Adios diablo, may you burn for 1,000 years, just like you were sentenced,"one said.

However Maria Castro Montes, a cousin of Castro, told CNN she found it "hard to believe he had the courage to take his own life," noting that she hoped her cousin's death will allow his victims to move on with their lives.

"They would never find peace if he were still in prison," Montes said.

"Maybe this is for the best... maybe this is the only way he will be out of the spotlight."

She said she cried when he learned that Castro was dead, because she she remembered happier times growing up with him and thought immediately of his victims and what effect his death might have on them.

Castro's attorney expressed frustration Wednesday that his client was able to kill himself after having been removed from suicide watch.

"I know most of greater Cleveland will be looking on this day as joyous, but for his family this is anything but," Craig Weintraub told the Plain Dealer.

"He's still a human being, this is still a civilized society. There's still an obligation to prevent our inmates from committing suicide."

Prison authorities have launched an investigation into how Castro managed to kill himself.

His three victims escaped on May 6 when Berry managed to break open part of the front door and call out to a neighbor for help. She emerged from the dilapidated house with a young daughter who was fathered by Castro during her captivity.

More than 92 pounds (42 kilos) of chains were found in the filthy, darkened home where the women were kept in locked rooms with boarded-up windows.

The house was demolished a few days after Castro was sentenced.

Castro pleaded guilty on August 1 after prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.

A tearful Michelle Knight said in emotional testimony before the court that death would have been "so much easier" for her tormenter.

"I spent 11 years in hell, and now your hell is just beginning," Knight told Castro.

In a rambling quasi-apology to his victims -- only Knight was present in the courtroom -- Castro claimed he had acted on impulse as a result of sexual addiction.

"I'm not a monster. I'm sick," he said then, clad in an orange prison jumpsuit.

Despite having pleaded guilty to 977 charges related to his victims' brutal ordeal -- including terminating Knight's pregnancies by starving and beating her -- Castro insisted he was not a violent man and that "there was harmony in that home."


Source : Sapa-AFP /aw
Date : 05 Sep 2013 07:11
 
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