Ariel Castro's Outrageous Testimony Must Be Seen to Be Believed

At his sentence hearing this afternoon, Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro was given the opportunity to address the court and his victims. While initially, Castro claimed that he wanted to apologize, his testimony soon devolved into a delusional rant in which he repeatedly excused his actions by claiming to have an addiction to porn, sex and masturbation.

Most incredulous and disturbing of all, however, were Castro’s claims that sex with his victims was always consensual (every bit of evidence suggests otherwise) and that he, Berry, Knight and DeJesus — the three women he literally kept in chains and beat until they had miscarriages — lived together in “harmony.”

Castro vehemently objected to being characterized by the courts, media and general public as a monster and reiterated time and time again that he “is not a violent person.” He also claimed that, despite his son’s accusations, he was never a wife-beater. That is, until he married his wife.

“I never had a record until I left my children’s mother,” he told courts.”…She is saying that I was a wife beater. That is wrong. It happened because I couldn’t get her to quiet down.”

He then offered up a multitude of excuses and non-apologies in regards to the multiple kidnappings, beatings, manipulation and rapes he committed against his three victims over the past 11 years. Among the worse excuses — that none of the women were virgins when he took them, that nobody missed Michelle Knight when she went missing (he’d often torture Knight with this information) and that they — his three victims — were never sensitive enough to his porn addiction.

Ariel Castro’s testimony is over 16 minutes of some the most outrageous claims and excuses you may ever hear. Watch at your own risk — your outrage meter is about to be put to the test.