Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight endured all of that year after year held captive by Ariel Castro in his torture chamber Cleveland, Ohio, home. They were victimized but they're not victims. Amanda, Gina and Michelle are survivors. 

 

Calling them a monster's victims we think it's far too much credit to the monster. He needs to be forgotten. Preferably sooner rather than later. But there is plenty of time for that. He got a life sentence today plus a thousand years. That's what a judge gave him after hearing powerful testimony from Michelle Knight and a truly delusional(欺瞒的) account from Mr. Castro himself. 

 

Now it's very rare to see someone who may be a true psychopath(精神病患者) justify their crimes. Today in court on live television, we saw just that. 

 

Most of the sex that went on in the house, and probably all of it, was consensual. This, this, these allegations about being forceful on them, that is totally wrong. Because there was times that they would even ask me for sex. Many times. We had a lot of harmony going on in that home. 

 

A lot of harmony going on in that home. That's what he said. 

 

In the hour ahead, we're going to look closer at whatever inside someone's mind makes them say things like that with Dr. Drew Pinsky and others who spent a lot of time with what the survivors went through, how they stayed sane and what recovery now looks like. 

 

But first, Pamela Brown with today's sentencing hearing. 

 

From this moment on, I will not let you define me or affect(假装；冒充) who I am. 

 

A resolute Michelle Knight confronted her former tormenter head on for the first time since escaping captivity. 

 

You took 11 years of my life away, and I have got it back. I spent 11 years in hell. Now your hell is just beginning. I will overcome all this that happened but you will face hell for eternity. 

 

When it was Ariel Castro's turn in a rambling and bizarre speech, he refused to take responsibility for what he did but at one point he did attempt to apologize. 

 

I am truly sorry to the DeJesus family, Michelle and Amanda. You guys know all the harmony that went on in that home. I ask God to forgive me. 

 

Castro also denied physically and sexually abusing the women. 

 

Most of the sex that went on in the house, probably all of it, was consensual. This, these allegations about being forceful on them, that is totally wrong. 

 

He even tried to justify his behavior. 

 

These people are trying to paint me as a monster, and I'm not a monster. I'm sick. I've been, I've been, my sexual problems have been so bad on my mind that I'm impulsive. 

 

But the evidence shows a very different story. Over defense objections prosecutors presented a detailed reconstruction of what the women endured for a decade inside Castro's home using a model of his house and showing these photos of their disheveled(凌乱不整洁的) rooms with boarded up windows and rusty chains.