Ariel Castro's vain pleas that he was not a violent man fell on deaf ears, as Judge Michael Russo accepted a plea deal that saw him convicted on 977 criminal counts. In a rambling quasi-apology to his three victims, one of whom sat sat stonily in the courtroom, Castro claimed he had acted on impulse as a result of sexual addiction.u00a0

Castro pleaded guilty last week after prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table. Michelle Knight, who was snatched off the street in 2002 at the age of 20, welcomed the sentence, arguing that death would have been "so much easier" for her tormenter.