Michelle Knight Tells Ariel Castro ‘Your Hell Has Just Begun'

by uInterviewAugust 2, 2013, 12:00 amNews >

Michelle Knight addressed her kidnapper Ariel Castro during his sentencing hearing on Thursday, showing extraordinary resilience in recounting the trauma she suffered in Castro’s forced captivity.

“I cried every night, I was so alone,” Knight said. “Years turned into an eternity. I spent 11 years in hell, where your hell is just beginning,” she said to Castro. “You deserve to spend life in prison,” adding, “After 11 years, I am finally being heard, and it is liberating.”

After Knight spoke, representatives for her fellow victims Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus spoke on their behalf. Berry’s sister Beth Serrano explained Berry’s absence by stating the former captive no longer wishes to speak about her time under Castro’s control. Furthermore, Berry doesn’t want the details of the ordeal to get back to her daughter at her young age. DeJesus' cousin Sylvia Colon avowed that the young woman won’t live her life as a victim, but “as a survivor.”

After Knight, Serrano and Colon spoke, Castro delivered a statement of his own, which was often more defiant than repentant, and at times telling of the man’s delusions. “These people are trying to paint me as a monster. I’m not a monster, I’m sick,” Castro said, claiming to be addicted to sex. “I am not a violent person. I simply kept them there without them being able to leave,” Castro said.

“We had a lot of harmony going on in that home,” Castro added.

Castro pled guilty to all 937 counts levied against him, including rape, kidnapping, and aggravated murder. On Thursday, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 1,000 years.

– Chelsea Regan

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