'I'm a Happy Person Inside': The Cleveland Kidnapper’s Creepy Courtroom Comments

Ariel Castro listens in the courtroom during the sentencing phase Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Cleveland. Three months after an Ohio woman kicked out part of a door to end nearly a decade of captivity, Castro, a onetime school bus driver faces sentencing for kidnapping three women and subjecting them to years of sexual and physical abuse. (AP Photo)

Before being sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro offered a rambling and oftentimes incoherent defense of his decision to kidnap, rape, and hold three women prisoner in his home for years.

"I've been a musician for a long time. To be a musician and to be a monster, I don't think I can handle that. I'm a happy person inside,” he said. "I'm not a violent person. I drove a school bus, I was a musician, I had a family. I do have value for human life because every time I came home, I would be so glad for the situation."

"My daughter, she just made every day for me after she was born. She never saw any violence going on in that house. … She'd probably say 'My dad is the best dad in the world,’” he continued. "I'm a normal person, I'm just sick. I have an addiction, just like an alcoholic has an addiction. Alcoholics cannot control their addiction."

Sure, because having a chemical addiction is just like maintaining a sex dungeon.

"Most of the sex that went on in the house and probably all of it was consensual. These allegations about being forceful on them, it's totally wrong. There were times they would ask me for sex,” he said, apparently unaware that he entered a plea of “guilty.”

"I did not prey on these women, I just acted on my sexual instincts because of my addiction. ... God as my witness, I never beat these women. I never tortured them,” he added.

He even blamed the FBI, saying that he felt the agency had “let the girls down” because it never asked him about their whereabouts.

"We had a lot of harmony going on in that home and if you've seen the YouTube video of Amanda this weekend, that proves that girl did not go through no torture. … If that was true, do you think she would be out partying already and having fun? ... All the victims are happy,” he continued.

He concluded by saying he was sorry for his supposedly uncontrollable addiction.

"I just hope that [the victims] find it in their hearts to forgive me and to maybe do some research for people who have addictions so they can see how that addiction takes over their lives,” he said.

Judge Michael Russo was not impressed with Castro’s defense -- especially the part about there being a lot of "harmony" in the house.

"I'm not sure there's anyone in America that would agree with you," he said before tacking 1,000 years and a fine of $100,000 on to Castro’s life sentence.

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Featured image AP.

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