CHICAGO: The Ohio man accused of holding three young US women captive for around a decade in a house in Cleveland will plead not guilty to charges of rape and kidnapping, one of his lawyers said yesterday.
“There will be a plea of not guilty,” attorney Jaye Schlachet said. Schlachet would not say on what grounds Ariel Castro would plead not guilty in the case that has shocked America, urging the public to refrain from a rush to judgment of his client.
“He’s not a monster and he shouldn’t be demonised by the media,” the lawyer said. The 52-year-old, who is being held on an $8m bond, has been charged with kidnapping and raping three women over around a 10-year period, one of whom bore his child in captivity, according to DNA tests made public.
Prosecutors say they also may charge him with the aggravated murder of the unborn babies at least one of the women allegedly miscarried as a result of beatings, a crime that could carry the death penalty in the mid-western state.
Michelle Knight, 32, Gina DeJesus, 23, and Amanda Berry, 27, were freed on May 6.
Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy McGinty last week called the home “a torture chamber and private prison,” telling reporters: “The horrific brutality and torture that the victims endured for a decade is beyond comprehension.”
AFP
