Kidnap accused pleads not guilty to rape and murder

A Cleveland man accused of holding three young women captive for a decade pleaded not guilty to hundreds of charges, including rape, kidnapping and murder for beating one pregnant captive until she miscarried.

Ariel Castro, 52, could face the death penalty if convicted of the aggravated murder charge, which is a capital offence in Ohio if it occurs in connection with a kidnapping.

Castro’s lawyer entered the plea on his behalf in a brief arraignment. He shuffled into the courtroom with his head bowed and did not say a word.

The case came to light after Amanda Berry, 27, managed to escape with her six-year-old daughter by calling out to a neighbour for help through a locked front door.

Police found two more women huddled in the house: Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32. All three had been snatched in separate incidents in 2002, 2003 and 2004.

Most US states have foetal homicide laws which allow prosecutors to punish those who harm pregnant women while also protecting the woman’s right to carry out a lawful abortion.

Kidnapping and rape are not capital offences despite the horrifying ordeal imposed on the three women who were snatched off the street with a promise of a lift home at the ages of 14, 16 and 20.

The 329-count indictment handed down offers glimpses of their suffering even though it only covers the first five years of their captivity.

Knight — who was the first to be snatched — was chained to a post in the basement, repeatedly raped and beaten and impregnated at least four times.

Berry tried to escape the night she was kidnapped but was overwhelmed and then raped. Her legs and mouth were bound with tape, she was chained to a pole in the basement and Castro put a motorcycle helmet on her head, the indictment said. At one point that night, he wrapped a vacuum cord around her neck.

DeJesus was also chained and bound with tape in the basement, beaten and sexually assaulted on the night she was kidnapped. But it was about a month before Castro forced the 14- year-old to have sex.

A leaked police report revealed horrifying details.

Knight told police that Castro “would make her abort the baby”, the police report read: “He starved her for at least two weeks and then repeatedly punched her in stomach until she miscarried.”

Castro brought in a plastic child’s pool and forced Berry to give birth in it. He also forced Knight to assist and told her “if [the] baby died... he’d kill her”.

At one point on that terrifying Dec 25, 2006, the newborn stopped breathing and Knight “breathed for her”, giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. A DNA test proved the child is Castro’s daughter.

The women said they were chained in the basement during their early years of captivity, but eventually were allowed to live unchained upstairs behind locked doors.

Police are unsure if visitors to the house — including Castro’s family — realised what was going on behind closed doors as Ariel “kept everybody at a distance”.