Cleveland sex dungeon beast Ariel Castro gets 1,000 years in jail

THE man who held three women captive for nearly a decade has been jailed for more than 1,000 years.

Ariel Castro struck a deal to avoid the death penalty

Ariel Castro - who locked up his victims at his home in Cleveland, Ohio - today struck a deal in court to avoid the death penalty.

The 53-year-old will be sentenced to life without parole plus 1,000 years, prosecutors said.

Entering a guilty plea this morning, Castro said: "I knew I was pretty much going to get the book thrown at me."

He added: "My addiction to pornography and my sexual problem has really taken a toll on my mind."

The former school bus driver, who was born in Puerto Rico, had been due to stand trial on 5 August.

“I knew I was pretty much going to get the book thrown at me”

Ariel Castro

The 977 charges against him included aggravated murder related to accusations he punched and starved one woman until she miscarried.

He was also was charged with hundreds of counts of kidnapping and rape, plus assault.

He was accused of repeatedly restraining the women, sometimes chaining them to a pole in a basement, to a bedroom heater or inside a van.

The charges alleged Castro assaulted one woman with a vacuum cord around her neck when she tried to escape.

The three women disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16 and 20 years old.

Each said they had accepted a ride from Castro, who remained friends with the family of one of the women and even attended vigils over the years marking her disappearance.

The women escaped Castro's house 6 May when one of them kicked out part of a door and called to neighbors for help.

Castro was arrested within hours and has remained behind bars.