![]() ![]() “They have life sentences.” In the memorandum Dr Ochberg reserved particular admiration for Ms Knight, whom he said had suffered “the longest and most severely”. “The damage that was done does not go away,” he said. “She just kept repeating, ‘You saved us! You saved us!’”ĭr Frank Ochberg, a professor of psychiatry at Michigan State University, who assessed the women, told the court the effect of Castro’s crimes on his victims would last indefinitely. Ms Knight “literally launched herself” into a fellow officer’s arms, Johnson told the court. Barbara Johnson, the Cleveland police officer who reached the scene first, found Ms Knight and Ms DeJesus upstairs after hearing footsteps. On 6 May this year, Ms Berry broke down part of the front door of Castro’s house and cried for help, attracting the attention of several neighbours. During the hearing, a scale model and a selection of interior photographs of Castro’s house were shown. Castro fed them one meal a day, and forced them to use plastic buckets as toilets, which he rarely emptied. All three were raped repeatedly during their captivity. According to a sentencing memorandum, “The entries speak of forced sexual conduct, of being locked in a dark room, of anticipating the next session of abuse, of the dreams of someday escaping and being reunited with family, of being chained to a wall, of being held like a prisoner of war.” Ms Berry’s diary was addressed to her mother when she learned that her mother had died during her captivity, she instead “wrote to her mother in heaven”.ĭetective Andy Harasimchuk, the officer in charge of the case, said Castro abducted the three young women between 20, initially chaining them in his basement, where he would rape them, make them don a motorcycle helmet and then leave them overnight. “I am truly sorry for what happened,” he said.īefore the sentencing, it emerged that the three women had kept diaries documenting their ordeal. His voice cracking, Castro also apologised to his victims. He also maintained that he had never beaten or tortured his victims, saying: “There was harmony in that home.” The six-year-old daughter he fathered with Ms Berry would, he suggested, consider him “the best dad in the world”. Contrary to the testimony of his victims – Ms Knight, 27-year-old Amanda Berry, and 23-year-old Gina DeJesus – Castro claimed that most of the sexual contact he had with the woman was consensual, and that they often asked him for sex. ![]()
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