Ohio kidnapper Ariel Castro said he is "not a monster" after one of his victims confronted him during his sentencing hearing to describe her "11 years in hell".
Castro said he knows what he did was wrong, but that he is not a violent person and that his captives asked for sex and were not tortured.
"These people are trying to paint me as a monster. I'm not a monster. I'm sick," he said during his sentencing hearing on Thursday.
Castro also claimed the women lived a happy life with him.
"We had a lot of harmony that went on in that home," he said.
The former school bus driver, who pleaded guilty to 937 charges, including kidnapping, rape, assault and aggravated murder, was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole plus 1,000 years.
From left: Gina DeJesus, Amanda Berry and Michelle Knight Before the sentence was handed down, victim Michelle Knight addressed the court and her former captor.
"You took 11 years of my life away and I have got it back," she said.
"I spent 11 years in hell. Now your hell is just beginning. I will overcome all this that happened, but you will face hell for eternity."
The 32-year-old Knight did not face Castro as she read her prepared statement, but he glanced toward her several times after she entered the courtroom.
Ms Knight was the first woman abducted by Castro in 2002 after he lured her into his house with the promise of a puppy for her two-year-old son.
"I missed my son every day. I wondered if I was ever going to see him again," she told the court.
A model of Ariel Castro's home is displayed in court Castro later made a rambling statement in which he blamed his sex addiction, his former wife and even the FBI for not thoroughly investigating the abductions.
He apologised to his victims but also claimed most of the sex was consensual.
"I just hope they find it in their hearts to forgive me and do some research on people who have addictions, and see how addictions take over their lives," he said.
Judge Michael Russo dismissed Castro's claims that the women lived a happy life with him.
"I'm not sure there's anyone in America that would agree with you," he said.
A deputy reacts as Castro says the FBI failed to rescue the women years ago The judge also told Castro that there was no place in the world for people who enslave others.
"These women never gave up hope," he said. "In fact, they prevailed."
Earlier, prosecutors called several witnesses to detail Castro's daily assaults on the women, recounted in diaries that compared the women's experience to that of prisoners of war.
The women disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16 and 20 years old - and were held captive for a decade.
The three, Ms Knight, 32, Amanda Berry, 27, and Gina DeJesus, 23, escaped in May, and Castro was arrested within hours.
For years, Castro chained his captives by their ankles, fed them only one meal a day and provided plastic toilets in their bedrooms that were infrequently emptied, prosecutors said.
A police photo shows chains used to restrain the women inside the home He locked all of them in a vehicle in his garage for three days when someone visited him, prosecutors said.
Castro said he did not have an exit strategy from his complicated double life and finally gave the women a chance to escape by leaving a door unlocked, court documents showed.
Witnesses, including a police officer who was among the first ones to arrive at the scene, described the desperate condition of the three victims.
Cleveland Police Officer Barbara Johnson said the three were "thin, pale, scared" and were asking what had happened to them.
Ms Knight was "very, very scared", and was having a hard time breathing, the officer testified.
Throughout the hearing, Castro listened and frequently talked to his lawyers.
Ms Knight sent police a handwritten letter thanking them for their help collecting cards and gifts for the women.
In the note, she wrote: "Life is tough, but I'm tougher!"
:: Ariel Castro Sentencing In Court: Live Updates
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