For 10 years she was held captive in a basement. Now she's speaking out...

Michelle Knight – one of the three women abducted by the Cleveland kidnapper, Ariel Castro, and held captive by him for more than 10 years – has spoken out about her ordeal.

Knight, now 32, was the first woman who Castro captured – and her experiences are chilling. After Castro lured Knight into his home by telling her he wanted to give her a puppy.

Castro subsequently kidnapped Amanda Berry, now 27, in 2003, and Gina de Jesus, now 23,  in 2004.

In an interview with Dr Phil, 32-year-old Knight revealed that in 2004 Castro forced her to prepare a room for his next victim. Knight was ordered to drill holes in the wall, where restraints would be secured.

“At the time he was telling me I needed to help him prepare another room, and I didn’t want to prepare that room,” she said.

On the day that Castro abducted Gina DeJesus, Knight says that she heard a teenager screaming “get off me, get off me” from down in the basement.

Castro originally told Knight that DeJesus was his own daughter.

Throughout the two-part interview with Dr Phil, Knight also revealed that while living in the house she was beaten, chained up, and abused both sexually and emotionally. She described being beaten for hours at a time.

Knight also told of how she suffered from five pregnancies – as well as five miscarriages – at the hands of Castro. He punched and kicked her in the stomach, to make sure that she would not give birth. In one instance, he jumped onto her stomach “with his feet and heavy body” to terminate the pregnancy.

Castro reportedly told his victim that he could do these horrific things because ‘nobody would care’. Knight revealed that he used to say: “That’s the reason why I hate you … Because I can abuse you and nobody would care. No one.”

Knight explained, “…And it would hurt because I knew my family didn’t care and I knew my family wasn’t there for me, cause they never was.”

Castro was 53-years-old when he pleaded guilty to his crimes, and was sentenced to life is prison earlier this year. In September – a month into his life sentence – he was found dead in his cell. Some reports suggest he may have died of autoerotic asphyxiation.

Knight described Castro’s suicide is prison earlier this year as cowardly: “He took a coward’s way out.”

“The pain he put us through is pain he didn’t want to go through,” she said.