“The damage that was done was a life sentence,” psychiatrist Frank Ochberg testified.
The case came to light after Amanda Berry, 27, managed to escape with her six year old daughter by calling out to a neighbor for help through a locked front door on May 6.
Lured into the car of a man they knew as the father of a friend or classmate at the ages of 20, 16, and 14, the women suffered violent beatings and repeated rapes.
They were fed just once a day and rarely given access to the bathroom, instead having to relieve themselves in plastic buckets that were “emptied infrequently,” prosecutors said in a sentencing memo.
Knight was impregnated four times during her 11 years of captivity.
Castro terminated her pregnancies by starving her for days, feeding her rotten food and then kicking and jumping on her stomach, testified Detective Andy Harasimchuk, who interviewed Knight upon her release.
Berry was allowed to carry a pregnancy to term, giving birth in a plastic kiddie pool on Christmas Day, 2006.
Castro would sometimes toss money at his victims after they were raped, which they could then give back to him if they wanted something special from the store, FBI Special Agent Andrew Burke testified.
Cleveland police officer Barb Johnson testified about the shock and sheer joy the women expressed when they were finally freed.
Johnson used the flashlight on her gun to search the darkened house with a fellow officer shortly after Berry was able to escape.
About The Author
