Ariel Castro's son: Prison is where dad belongs

Gary Strauss | USA TODAY

The son of confessed Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro says his father deserves to be imprisoned for the rest of his life.

Speaking on NBC's Today show, Anthony Castro called his father a liar, untrustworthy and a bully, and said he doubted he would visit him in prison.

Ariel Castro, 53, is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday on more than 900 charges stemming from the kidnappings of three Cleveland women more than a decade ago. The former school bus driver pleaded guilty to the charges Friday under a deal that will spare him the death sentence. "I knew I was going to get pretty much the book thrown at me" following his arrest, Castro told judge Michael Russo.

Anthony Castro, 31, said life imprisonment without the chance of parole was the best possible sentence for his father.

"I think that if he really can't control his impulses and he really doesn't have any value for human life, the way this case has shown, then behind bars is where he belongs for the rest of his life," Anthony Castro said.

"He's been lying to his family for the past 10, 11 years at every possible turn. I have no trust in him. I can't see myself going to visit him and giving him the opportunity to face me and lie to me again."

Ariel Castro kidnapped Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight between 2002 and 2004 and imprisoned them in his Seymour Avenue home. Berry was able to escape in May by yelling for help to a neighbor. The women were repeatedly raped and Berry gave birth to Castro's daughter on Christmas Day 2006. Castro was also charged with forcing one of the captives to miscarry.

During a Friday hearing, Ariel Castro expressed no remorse for the victims, but said had been sexually abused as a child and was "addicted" to pornography.

Anthony Castro said he felt "overwhelming joy" when he heard that the victims had been rescued, but was quickly sickened when his father was implicated.

"It really became real to me when the 911 calls started to be played, and I heard Amanda Berry say his name," Anthony Castro told Today. "That was the toughest moment and that's when it became real."

As a child, Anthony Castro said his father was often violent and he recalled crying himself to sleep after he was beaten with a belt. He also said his dad frequently beat his mother, Grimilda, before the couple divorced.

"No one should have to see their mom crumpled up in a corner on the floor, the way I did so many times," he said.

Anthony Castro, who lives in Columbus, had said previously that is father nearly beat his mother to death in 1993 after she was recovering from brain surgery.

Berry, now 27, made her first public appearance at a Saturday concert in Cleveland, where she was invited on stage by rapper Nelly.

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