The son of convicted rapist and kidnapper Ariel Castro, Ariel Anthony Castro, speaks out about the shock and anger he has felt since finding out his father’s horrific crimes and how media outlets continue to target him.
Ariel Castro, 53, committed suicide in his jail cell Sept. 3, a month after a judge sentenced him to life in prison plus 1,000 years. He kidnapped three women and kept them imprisoned in horrible conditions for over a decade, continuously raping and beating them, and even fathered a child with one of them.
Ariel Anthony Castro said he never knew about his father’s actions until one of the women escaped the house and alerted authorities in May.
"I am not my father, and I can't explain his actions or be held accountable for something I never knew he was doing. Cameras showed up at my workplace," Castro said, NY Daily News reports. "Reporters blasted my Facebook friends for information about me. The national networks set up shop, and I watched as person after person who barely knew my father lined up to get their moment on national television."
Some major news reporters even took a picture from Castro’s Facebook page and used it in a documentary about his father, making it seem like he was his father.
According to LA Times, he eventually decided to appear on NBC and open up about the situation before his father’s suicide, admitting he would probably never visit his father because he lied to him for so long.