Ohio kidnapper found hanged
Cleveland, Sept. 4: Ariel Castro, sentenced to life in prison for the kidnapping, rape and beatings of three Cleveland women he held captive in his house for a decade, was found hanged in his prison cell late Tuesday, a state corrections official said.
The former school bus driver, who pleaded guilty to 937 offences in July, was under protective custody and isolated from other inmates at the Correctional Reception Centre in Orient. Prison staff found him hanged at about 9.20 pm CDT on Tuesday (0220 GMT, Wednesday), officials said.
A review of the incident, which came a month after a death row prisoner was found hanged at another Ohio prison, was underway.
Castro was sentenced on August 1 to life plus 1,000 years in prison without the possibility of parole for abducting the three women and keeping them imprisoned in the dungeon-like confines of his house, where they were starved, beaten and sexually assaulted for about a decade.
The house where the three were held, bound with chains and ropes for periods of time, has been torn down. The police found a suicide note and confession written by Castro when they searched his home in May. His lawyer said on Wednesday that prison authorities repeatedly denied him a psychologist.
“We requested the opportunity for our retained independent psychologist to see and evaluate Mr Castro in both the county jail and in the prison reception centre, where he was being held.