Woman held as sex slave for 11 years forgives captor, says she doesn't blame him
Hate has turned into forgiveness for Michelle Knight, one of three women who were kept as sex slaves by a US man.
In May 2013, the three women were rescued from the captivity and torture they'd suffered for years at the hands of a man called Ariel Castro.
Knight was kidnapped when she was 21, in Aug 2002, and was held captive for 11 years.
In a live radio interview in Ohio over the weekend, sponsored by a domestic violence shelter organisation called WomenSafe, Knight said she has forgiven her captor.
"At first I hated him," she said. "But I went through therapy and realised it hadn't been his fault. He had a disease."
While in captivity, Knight had been beaten so violently by Castro that she had five miscarriages, reported New York Daily News.
"For me it's holding on to hatred that will control your life. And if you hold on to it, you're going to condemn your life to hell. And I choose to forgive that person for all the wrongdoing that they have done to me. And for the people who didn't look for me, I forgive them too. It wasn't their fault."
Michelle Knight
Knight said she recalled her captor telling her he was a sex addict and that he could not control himself.
When she met him at his sentencing hearing in Aug 2013, she told him: "You will face hell in eternity."
Castro committed suicide in prison in Sept 2013.
Source: New York Daily News
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