One of Ariel Castro's kidnap victims said she hoped the demolition of the home in which she was held captive for more than a decade would act as a symbol of hope.
Michelle Knight, 32, watched as the house on Seymour Avenue in East Cleveland, in which she was held against her will and repeatedly raped by the 53-year-old, was razed to the ground.
Miss Knight, along with two other women who were kidnapped by Castro, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus, endured years of cruelty and brutality behind the suburban facade.
Michelle Knight addressed the crowd of onlookers They were kept behind locked doors and chained by their ankles.
It took about 20 minutes to tear down the property as part of a plea deal that spared Castro a possible death sentence and allowed him to be jailed for life, plus 1,000 years, instead.
Speaking at the scene, Miss Knight, who last week made a powerful and moving statement to the court sentencing Castro, said she did not want to be defined by the horrors that had gone on at the house.
She said: "Nobody was there for me when I was missing, and I want the people out there to know, including the mothers, that they can have strength, they can have hope, and their child will come back.
A crowd of onlookers cheered and clapped as the demolition began "They will ... just have the love in God and you'll see they'll come back."
Prosecutors said Castro cried when he signed over the house deeds and mentioned his "many happy memories" there with the women.
As the house was being demolished, Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty told the crowd: "This was one evil guy."
Giving her statement in court last week, Miss Knight told Castro: "You took 11 years of my life away and I have got it back. I spent 11 years in hell. Now you're hell is just beginning. I will overcome all this has happened, but you will face hell for eternity."
The three women, who were snatched aged 20, 16 and 14, escaped from the house on May 6 when Miss Berry and her six-year-old daughter managed to break free after removing part of the front door and calling to a neighbour for help.
The demolition and clearing of the site was expected to be completed swiftly and the building materials will be shredded to prevent rubble being sold online as so-called "murderabilia", although no one was killed at the home.
Google Earth has already blurred out a satellite image of the house, before the demolition even began.
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