Ariel Castro did not enter a plea during his initial appearance in Cleveland's court

When friends and neighbours held a vigil to mark another year of Gina DeJesus' disappearance, Ariel Castro was there, comforting her mother.

But police say Mr Castro had held Ms DeJesus in his house in Cleveland, Ohio, for almost a decade, along with Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight and a girl born to Ms Berry in captivity six years ago.

Neighbours were shocked by the accusations against Mr Castro, with one saying he had spent time with him socially.

Ariel Castro was born in Puerto Rico, and had owned the home on Seymour Avenue since 1992. He had worked as a school bus driver for 22 years until November 2012.

His family emigrated from the city of Yauco in the US Caribbean territory. Mr Castro's father, Nona Castro, ran a used car firm but died in 2004.

'Regular guy'

His uncle Julio "Cesi" Castro, 78, remains a pillar of the city's Hispanic community, running the Caribe Grocery corner store.

Police said they had gone to the house on Seymour Avenue twice - in 2000 when Mr Castro reported a fight on the street and in 2004 after he left a child on a school bus. An investigation into that incident found no evidence of a crime.

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Neighbour Charles Ramsey, who helped Amanda Barry escape, said he had eaten and drunk beer with Mr Castro.

"He's somebody you look and you look away because he's not doing nothing but the average stuff," Mr Ramsey told a local TV station. "There's nothing exciting about him."

Mr Castro had played bass guitar in several local bands, including the popular Latino band, Grupo Kanon, on and off for 15 years.

Julio Castro told a local broadcaster that his nephew was someone who "everybody thought was such a nice person".

Juan Perez, 27, who grew up in the area, said he had thought Mr Castro a "fun guy" and that parents on the street had trusted him.

But Darlene Dos Reis, a work colleague, told the BBC she did not like working with Mr Castro. "I found him to be very mean and hateful with the children," she said.

On his Facebook profile, Mr Castro said he was the grandfather of five children and had posted a congratulatory note in April to his daughter, Arlene, on the birth of a child.

Domestic charges

The couple's son Anthony Castro, 31, a banker in Cincinnati, Ohio, told London's Daily Mail newspaper that his mother, Grimilda Figueroa, moved herself and three children out of the house in 1996 after years of violent abuse.

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"I was beaten as well," Mr Castro said ."We were never really close because of that and it was also something we never really talked about."

Mr Castro was divorced more than a decade ago, but court records show he was accused in 2005 of attacking his former wife.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that Figueroa, who died last year, suffered multiple injuries, including broken ribs, a knocked-out tooth, and a blood clot in her brain.

Her lawyer said Mr Castro abducted her daughters several times, despite the divorce decree having no provision for his visitation. The newspaper does not report how the case was settled.

The accusations of abuse have been echoed by relatives since the discovery of the abducted girls.

Figueroa's father, Ismail, said Mr Castro would frequently lock his daughter in an apartment in which he and Figueroa lived after they met, the Associated Press reported.

It also quoted Figueroa's brother-in-law, Angel Villanueva, as saying Mr Castro refused to let people visit the house they later moved into on Seymour Avenue, and only let Figueroa out if she was with him.

Figueroa's sister-in-law, Elida Caraballo, told Britain's Daily Telegraph that Mr Castro locked Figueroa in a box in the house, beat her frequently, and knocked her down the stairs. Her husband, Frank, who grew up on Seymour Avenue, said the house had a brick basement with a trapdoor.

Mr Castro had a dispute in 1996 with a neighbour.

"Court documents listed a great deal of hostility," the Cleveland newspaper reported.

A local broadcaster reported that he had been arrested and charged with domestic abuse in 1993, but the charge was later dropped.

And Mr Castro was fired from his school bus driver position in November after a history of citations.

According to school board records, in 2004, he left a special-education student alone in a parked bus while he grabbed a burger. Five years later he was suspended for an illegal turn while children were aboard.

In 2012, he was suspended again for using the bus to go shopping. But the final straw came later in the year when he left his vehicle, unlocked and unattended two blocks from his home.

Source: BBC news