Ariel Castro’s son: Life in prison for my dad is best sentence

Days before his father is expected to spend the rest of his life in prison for kidnapping and sexually abusing three women, the son of Ariel Castro said his father belongs in prison.

“I think it’s the best possible sentence,” Anthony Castro said in an interview broadcast on the “Today” show. “I think if he really can’t control his impulses and he really doesn’t have any value for human life the way this case has shown, then behind bars is where he belongs for the rest of his life.”

Last week, the elder Castro accepted a plea agreement that spared him the death penalty. In exchange for admitting he held three women prisoner and repeatedly raped and abused them for about a decade, Castro will be sentenced on Thursday to life in prison plus 1,000 years.

“I was shocked because of the magnitude of such a crime,” Anthony Castro, 31, said. “I don’t think I could ever imagine anyone doing that, let alone to find out it was my own flesh and blood, my father.”

The three women disappeared between 2002 and 2004. They escaped in May.

One of the victims, 27-year-old Amanda Berry, made her first public appearance on Saturday night when she was invited on stage by rapper Nelly during an outdoor concert in Cleveland.

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