The FULL interview with Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus - BBC Newsnight

you need Police Fire ambulance I believe okay and what's going on there I thank you Matt and I've been missing for ten years and I'm here [Music] for more than a decade there was a dark secret hidden away in this city in a quiet suburb three girls were imprisoned tortured beaten and raped Ariel Castro a school bus driver had kidnapped all three girls Gina DeJesus Amanda berry a Michelle Knight in 2013 a decade on miraculously they escaped [Music] I had gotten off of work early that day and I worked at Burger King I called my sister for a ride she was at work and I had called a friend for a ride and he didn't answer so I just started walking and as I was walking there was a VIN and it was in a driveway that I had to go around I looked up saw a man and a girl in the band the girl looked like someone that I had worked with so you know I smiled at them continued to walk a couple minutes later the van pulls up and he says dunya right I was walking home from school with his daughter Arlene Castro and she used to pay phone to call her mom to ask her if she could come to my house and my mom said no she went her other way and I went the other way he asked me if I seemed his daughter and I said yes and he was like can you help me find her I was like yes and then he didn't turn around I wind up going to his house I had my Burger King outfit on so he noticed that and he was talking about how his son had used to work there and that I knew a couple of his kids so so it was a kind of casual conversation yes and then of course when you get to the house you immediately know that he's not going to let you out yes amanda had recently celebrated her 16th birthday when she was kidnapped once locked inside Castro's house she discovered his first victim 21 year old Michelle Knight this is Seymour Avenue less than four miles from where the girls are abducted Ariel Castro moved here in 1992 and he was well-known in the area he imprisoned the three girls here for more than ten years they were chained up for much of the time raped over and over again half starved sometimes beaten and never allied out of the squalid airless house to 207 Seymour Avenue has been razed to the ground now one less physical reminder of the girl's decade in hell [Music] Amanda you had demonstrated extraordinary foresight to keep a diary how did that come about what did you do well within the first week you know I was just sitting in a dark room watching this small black and white TV and he asked me is there anything that you needed from the store you know coloring books or something and I said yes you know color book would be nice and a journal you almost made a code didn't you I mean the code you were being raped repeatedly sometimes up to five times a day but what you did would you just put 3 X 4 X 5 X so why did you do that I know eventually if we were ever freed you know my mom would read this and I wanted my family to kind of know what what I went through and how horrible it was and I also wanted him I wanted everything to be accounted for but was it also way of writing about the rapes but not writing about the rapes exactly how did he chained you you you know when you're my teen went through her wall to my world like through war because her room my room were connected so much straight to a while and then I'm like divided for my ankle to me she'll think oh it must have been terrible to have the chains on all the time but also when he was abusing you physically he had you sometimes in the same room there was only like a couple of time that that happened with me and yeah that was like horrible like I just I remember crying and telling him no but again it was part of the sadism I think the more we cried and showed him our pain in our sorrow like he like got energy from that like it helped him so we kind of learn yeah we kind of learned right to like just don't cry don't show him your pain don't show him your mad even though sometimes you're hurt and so he won't laugh from inside [Music] one of the coolest things I think early on that he did was he talked to you about the fact that he'd been on his motorcycle and he's seen your mum handing out flyers about your disappearance and he had gone up and taken a flyer from her and asked if there was any information about you which was so cruel but you asked for the flyer now why did you want to keep the flyer tell me because my mom was handy not to fire and I was the only thing that was close to her but you also wanted to decorate it and did you think that you would be able to keep that fire to the day that you saw yes and that was important to you [Music] Gina's parents Nancy and Felix never gave up the search for their missing daughter we did everything any ideas that came up if anybody approached us we took of Dennis because we knew we had to keep her alive we need we knew we had to keep her out there so people would not forget you got a chance to see your families on television that must mean both heartbreaking but was also it had left your spirits Amanda it did you know that was the only way we knew how they looked what had changed within a year now that they were still fighting for you feel like a piece of my heart was missing because it was just me my mom my sister my two children my husband we did everything together when she came up missing I lost a piece of me you know we were so close she's my best friend and it was hard but you kept going I kept going because like I said I've never given up hope on my sister if I didn't know anything about her there was nothing bad in my heart you know so all I can do is keep hope and keep going for Eugenia - you have this big no fun family and then you were able to see them on television to see your mom yes but something else came on the television as well that you did watch it but you watched the Royal Wedding I did tell me oh so it was like the biggest thing and all the news channels you know and I loved watching the news to know what's going on in the world and they're like well you know you have to wake up at like 6:00 a.m. and I was gonna be on this channel so I actually set my clock and got up at 6 a.m. to me that was just something that would I don't know it's happiness they're getting married and to see what her dress look like and see all the people there and it was just beautiful I still one day when I get married and have a family you know that normalcy and what did you think of her dress um I think it could have been a little fancier she is a princess yeah [Music] three years into Amanda's ordeal something would happen which would change the experience of everyone in sight Amanda became pregnant I had realized that I hadn't gotten my period and that was like the first sign and then I had started like getting sick like I couldn't eat anything and I would just throw it up so that was like that was the sign but you knew that he didn't want to baby in the house yeah because you know if the baby cries or you know the neighbors hear a baby or someone comes to the house and what do you do with the baby how do you keep a baby quiet but then came the time when you went into labor yeah I really didn't even know I was going into labor I just had like labor pains all day but I had no idea what it was eventually I do use the bathroom and like I heard something pop and I didn't know what it was but then he's like oh I you know I think your water broke so he takes me upstairs into my bedroom and he brings out this baby pool and that's where I had just like lay and so I had the baby so I go what make a mess on the bed so he had gotten Michelle to come in and help me deliver the baby and he said in a rocking chair and write a baby like a book how do I give birth when Jocelyn was born did it kind of reinforce all your survival instincts the three of you that they had a baby in the house I mean how did it make a difference Gina to have Jocelyn and I I cried when she was born I just I'm just like thank God that she was all right because it could have been otherwise yes the time did come for going to school and you made the school tell me about meeting a kindergarten we'd wake up in the morning we would have breakfast we would pretend walk to school yeah I try to make it as real as possible for her you know so we would lock the door and we would walk to school cross streets and I would tell her you know stop at green lights and look both ways when it's a red light and we would finally get to school and I would sit her down and tell her okay I love you have a good day and then I would become her teacher then of course finally the day came how did you get out so Justin goes to go downstairs because she was allowed to go downstairs you know when she wanted if he had the door open usually and so she goes downstairs and she's like I guess looking for him and she comes upstairs and she says mommy daddy's blue car's not here and I said so what does that mean you know just maybe he's in the garage go look in the garage go look around the house he's in the backyard somewhere so she's okay okay because I have a TV so loud but I heard her coming up and down the stairs I heard jessalyn whispering and I just just sat there listened to everything and just kept watching TV I don't see anything so I finally tell Justin I'm like okay but then I try to open the door the screen door and there's like a lock on there like a chain lock so I'm like oh my gosh like and I noticed like as I looked at it like you had to have a key so I'm like it and open the door so I'm like pushing it I'm thinking like oh it's gonna break easy it's just a screen door but it it didn't break so I'm like at that point I'm like you know yelling and screaming and I'm like I have my it was just about that much room that I could fit my arm through so I have my arm like waving going crazy like somebody please help me I see this girl going nuts trying to get out of a house so we could kick the bottom and she comes out with a little girl and she says call 9-1-1 Police Fire ambulance I'm ok what's going on there I think I've been missing for ten years and I'm ugly right now I just out there and then an inherent caming I just heard when when the cops like start to break in the house and stuff I'm not thinking of the cops are they I'm thinking oh no he found her and she's gonna be in big trouble we also have a Michelle Knight in the house they put me in the back of the car when they went into the house and got Gino Michel and then they walked us all to the ambulance so that was like the first time that we were together and we were like talking freely and she me and her were sitting next to each other and she looks at me and she says wow like you know we're really free [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you actually do have an incredibly bright future now what do you want to do more than anything someday I want to be able to help other people that's maybe don't have a voice or as scared or as going through something and they don't know what to do or how to get through something you know I definitely want to help people one day one more thing when you am engaged a lawyer and he asked you if you wanted anything you just said you wanted two things what were they a tombstone a headstone for my mom because she hadn't had one and a burghers of it gift for my daughter [Music] and what about you Gina what's your dream I want to help people like me and change a lot of people [Music] you know having not quite believed that you were going to get out what was it like when you got out I was I still couldn't believe that I was out and I don't think it hit me - I got to the hospital and you were out in the normal world yes and I was happy [Music] you

Channel: BBC Newsnight

Views: 14,481,985

Keywords: Newsnight, BBC, UK, politics, News, BBCNewsnight, Kidnapping (Film Subject), Cleveland (City/Town/Village), kidnap, torture, rape, ariel castro, michelle knight, bbc newsnight, chained, starved, amanda berry, gina dejesus, escpae, ohio, imprisonment, bus driver, kirsty wark, amanda knight, amanda berry cleveland, kindappings, castro, ariel, interview

Id: pco06q0R5gU

Length: 16min 5sec (965 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 27 2015