CLEVELAND: Unemployed American bus driver Ariel Castro appeared in court Thursday to face charges that he kidnapped and raped three young women and held them and a young child in his home for a decade.
The 52-year-old from Cleveland, Ohio did not enter a plea and stood with his head bowed while the court set large bonds of two million dollars in each of four cases, effectively ensuring that he will remain in detention.
He was presented to the court by public defender Kathleen DeMetz, who said he was "charged with kidnapping and rape on one charge, kidnapping and rape on the second, kidnapping and rape on the third, and kidnapping on the fourth."
"With respect to bond on Mr Castro," she said. "Mr Castro is 52 years old.
"He has lived in the area for 39 years. He is on unemployment compensation and to the best of my knowledge, he has no convictions for felonies or serious misdemeanors," she said.
County prosecutor Brian Murphy said: "I would like to say that the charges against Mr Castro are based on premeditated decisions to snatch three young women from Cleveland's South Side streets.
"Two of the victims incurred a horrifying ordeal for more than a decade, a third for close to a decade, and the ordeal eventually resulted in a little girl believed to have been born to one of the women while in captivity.
"And also, along with captivity, there were repeated beatings. They were bound and restrained and sexually assaulted, basically never freed to leave this residence," he said.
Municipal court judge Lauren Moore set the bond terms and instructed that Castro was to have no contact with any of his alleged victims.
He was led away. Following the hearing DeMetz told reporters that Castro has been deemed a suicide risk and is to be placed on suicide watch when he is taken to the county jail later in the day.
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