Cleveland Kidnapping Victims Kept Diaries Describing the Horrors

In a sentencing memo filed before Ariel Castro’s formal sentencing hearing, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty revealed that Gina DeJesus, Amanda Berry and Michelle Knight — the women Castro is serving a 1000-year sentence without parole for kidnapping, imprisoning and repeatedly raping — kept diaries about the awful abuse they endured.

Specifically:

“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, of missing the lives they once enjoyed, of emotional abuse, of his threats to kill, of being treated like an animal, of continuous abuse, and of desiring freedom,” the memo says.

Along with the memo, Michelle Knight publicly released a thank you note to the Cleveland PD:

The sentencing hearing is on Thursday, and it’s interesting to note that not everyone in Castro’s family has forsaken him — his sister Marisol Alicea says he will speak at the hearing to present the “other side” of the story. (???)

“(People will) see the other side of Ariel Castro … not the monster that everyone thinks he is,” she said, adding that she was in no way defending her brother.