Ariel Castro has been in court all day for a sentencing hearing after he pleaded guilty to over 900 charges for kidnapping and holding three women hostage for a decade. Michelle Knight, one of the victims, spoke directly to him during the hearing, seeing him for the first time since they were rescued in May.
“Your hell is just beginning,” Knight, now 32, said, reports USA Today. She was impregnated by Castro and forced to miscarry five times while she was held captive. “You took 11 years of my life away.”
"I will live on. You will die a little bit every day,” Knight said. She also detailed her time in Castor’s house with Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus, the two other women he abducted. She said that Castro would go to church on Sundays and return to “torture” them.
According to CBS News, Castro also spoke, saying before sentencing, “These people are trying to paint me as a monster. I'm not a monster. I'm sick.”
Last week, Castro agreed to a plea deal that would sentence him to prison for life without parole, plus 1,000 years. He was charged with 937 counts, including rape and aggravated murder.
Cuyahoga County Judge Michael Russo told Castro that he deserves the maximum sentence, adding, “No single prison term adequately reflects the enormity of your conduct.”
Russo continued, “I still feel based upon the information you've provided to the court that you feel you are a victim. You haven't been a victim, you've been a victimizer. The three young women should have been free to live their lives. They shouldn't have been locked in a house, in deplorable conditions.”
He told Castro that he will not be released from prison for the rest of his natural life “for any reason.”