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| Ariel Castro |
Castro, 53, was found dead just a month after being sentenced to 1,000 years in jail for kidnapping and raping three women he held captive at his home
Ohio kidnapper Ariel Castro - jailed for kidnapping and repeatedly raping three women he held captive in his home for 10 years - has been found dead in his prison cell.
The former school bus driver was sentenced to life plus 1,000 years in prison for the kidnapping, rape and beatings of three Cleveland women he held captive for years in his house, was found hanged by prison staff at 9.20pm last night.
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| Ariel Castro |
Prison medical personnel at Correctional Reception Center in Orient tried to resuscitate him, and he was transferred to an area hospital, but he was pronounced dead about 90 minutes later.
A spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, JoEllen Smith, said: "He was housed in protective custody which means he was in a cell by himself and rounds are required every 30 minutes at staggered intervals.
Upon finding inmate Castro, prison medical staff began performing life saving measures. Shortly after he was transported to [the prison medical facility] where he was pronounced dead at 10:52 pm."
"A thorough review of this incident is under way," she added.
The news was met with a mixture of anger and happiness from people around the world.
?@StevenUhalde tweeted: "Coward took the easy way out."
?@Beverly927 wrote: "Didn't even serve a sentence equal to 1 day per 400+ charges. #coward."
?@CallMeAly91 said: "Ariel Castro took a cowards way out. I hope he rots in hell."
?@BlazeB_Hookah posted: "It's crazy how criminals cant endure what they do to people.Ariel Castro hung himself in his prison after imprisoning 2 girls."
Castro was sentenced on August 1 to life plus 1,000 years in prison without the possibility of parole for abducting his three victims between 2002 and 2004 and keeping them imprisoned in the dungeon-like confines of his house,where they were starved, beaten and sexually assaulted for 10 years.
He pleaded guilty in July to a total of 937 offenses, including kidnapping, rape, felonious assault and a charge of aggravated murder under a fetal homicide law for the forcible miscarriage of one of his three victims.
A deal with prosecutors spared Castro a possible death penalty for murder.
Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty acknowledged after Castro’s sentencing that a suicide note and confession written by Castro was found by authorities at his residence when they searched his home following his arrest in May.
Castro was taken into custody just after the three women he held captive - Amanda Berry, 27, Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32 - were freed from the house with the assistance of neighbors who heard Berry’s cries for help. Rescued along with them was Berry’s 6-year-old daughter, fathered by Castro and born during her mother’s captivity.
