'I was tied up like a fish': Ohio kidnap victim Michelle Knight tells Dr Phil about captivity at hands of Ariel Castro

Chat show interview to air today and tomorrow is first time any of victims have spoken out at length about what happened

Michelle Knight, the first of Ariel Castro's Cleveland kidnapping victims, is interviewed by Dr Phil McGraw (Reuters)

One of the three women held in captivity by the Ohio kidnapper Ariel Castro has appeared on an American chat show to describe her experience.

“I was tied up like a fish,” said Michelle Knight, who suffered 10 years of physical, psychological and sexual abuse at the hands of her tormentor.

Ms Knight, who was 21 when she was kidnapped in August 2002, is the first of the three victims to speak at length about her story.

The full interview on the Dr Phil TV talk show will air in two parts today and tomorrow, but advance clips have been released showing some of the disturbing details that will be discussed.

“I was tied up like a fish, an ornament on the wall,” Ms Knight told the celebrity psychologist and host Phil McGraw. “That's the only way I can describe it.”

“I was hanging like this,” she said, using her finger to draw a swooping U-shape curve in the air.

Other clips showed Ms Knight saying she once tried to pick a lock and escape, only to be found out and told she would be “punished”. She said she spent weeks in chains, and would have her mouth taped up so she could not scream.

Ms Knight and the other victims Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus escaped from Castro's house in Cleveland on 6 May this year when Ms Berry pushed out a door and called for help.

Ms Berry and Ms DeJesus plan to collaborate with a Pulitzer Prize-winning team of Washington Post reporters for a book about their ordeal, and unlike Ms Knight have said little about what happened.

Castro, 53, pleaded guilty to the 937 charges against him, which included multiple counts of kidnapping, rape and aggravated murder, after the beating of a pregnant captive until she miscarried

He was sentenced to life in prison, but was found hanged in his cell just a month into his sentence. His death was ruled a suicide, but prison reports have come to light which explore the possibility he may have died accidentally while choking himself for sexual thrill.

Ms Knight was the only victim to appear at Castro's sentencing. She told him, “You took 11 years of my life away, but I've got my life back! I spent 11 years in hell. Now your hell is just beginning.”