'Eternity in hell' for Ohio abductor

LIVE: Sentencing of Ariel Castro

One of three women imprisoned in an Ohio home for about a decade has told their captor he will “face hell for eternity”, as he is sentenced.

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

The 53-year-old former school bus driver addressed the court to deny he was a monster.

The court also heard he played Russian roulette with his victims, kept them chained up and repeatedly raped them.

He faces a life term plus 1,000 years.

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.

Castro pleaded guilty last week to 937 criminal charges under a plea deal to spare him the death penalty.

‘Happy person inside’

In her statement at Thursday’s hearing, Ms Knight, the only victim to speak at the hearing, told how Castro went to church every Sunday, before coming home to “torture” the women.

“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.”

Castro then stood up to address the court.

“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.

A former bandsman, he said: “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 apologised to his victims, saying he was “truly sorry”.

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 shined a flashlight on herself so the women could see they were really police.

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