1000years and a life sentence in jail : Ariel Castro

The former school bus driver, Ariel Castro who pleaded guilty to 937 charges, including kidnapping, rape, assault and aggravated murder, was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole plus 1,000 years.

Before the sentence was handed down, victim Michelle Knight addressed the court and her former captor.

"You took 11 years of my life away and I have got it back," she said.

"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."

The 32-year-old Knight did not face Castro as she read her prepared statement, but he glanced toward her several times after she entered the courtroom.

Ms Knight was the first woman abducted by Castro in 2002 after he lured her into his house with the promise of a puppy for her two-year-old son.

"I missed my son every day. I wondered if I was ever going to see him again," she told the court.

He locked all of them in a vehicle in his garage for three days when someone visited him, prosecutors said.

Castro said he did not have an exit strategy from his complicated double life and finally gave the women a chance to escape by leaving a door unlocked, court documents showed.

Witnesses, including a police officer who was among the first ones to arrive at the scene, described the desperate condition of the three victims.

Cleveland Police Officer Barbara Johnson said the three were "thin, pale, scared" and were asking what had happened to them.

Ms Knight was "very, very scared", and was having a hard time breathing, the officer testified.

Throughout the hearing, Castro listened and frequently talked to his lawyers.

Ms Knight sent police a handwritten letter thanking them for their help collecting cards and gifts for the women.

In the note, she wrote: "Life is tough, but I'm tougher!"