Channel 5 to air Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight Documentary

On Monday BBC Three announced they would air a documentary about the three women held captive for over a decade in a house in Ohio, USA. Today Channel 5 announce they’ve also commissioned an ITN documentary on the story, which will air next week.

The fast turn-around Channel 5 documentary tells the chilling story of the three young women imprisoned in a cellar in suburban Cleveland, Ohio for 11 years. It will air Wednesday May 22nd at 10 pm and is being made for Channel 5 by ITN Productions

The programme questions how they ended up trapped for over a decade in a house no one thought to look in and why the girls might not have tried to escape. Ohio Slave Girls: Their Story delves into the psychology of how one man succeeded in persuading the women to live as captives for so long and examines the long term effects of this most traumatic of experiences.

Through exclusive interviews with neighbours and family witnesses, expert psychologists and criminologists the programme asks What happened when they were taken, and what did Ariel Castro – the man charged with snatching them, want from these young women? What control did their captor hold over them and how did he prevent them from trying to call for help? What is the true nature of the relationship between these young female prisoners and their predatory captor?

Ohio Slave Girls: Their Story airs on Wednesday May 22nd at 10pm on Channel 5.

BBC Three’s version – The Cleveland Captives: What Really Happened? – airs a day earlier on Tuesday the 21st of May at 9pm.