Were Cleveland women raped after they were kidnapped?

A CLEVELAND judge has given police until tonight to charge the three brothers being held over the abduction of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight. It now seems likely that charges could include rape and/or assault as well as kidnapping after it was claimed yesterday that at least five babies were born at Ariel Castro's house during the decade of the women's incarceration. These are the major new developments overnight:

Multiple pregnancies: Unofficial police sources have told WKYC that the women were beaten when they became pregnant so that the babies would not survive childbirth. The circumstances of the birth Amanda Berry's six-year-old daughter Jocelyn, who escaped with the women on Monday, have not yet been divulged. Police confirmed yesterday that Jocelyn was born in captivity but would not say which of the three Castro brothers – if any – was the father.

Where the women were kept: Police are reported to have found chains and tape used to restrain the three women. Most news reports suggest the women were kept in the basement though Ariel Castro's son, Anthony Castro, has told the Daily Mail that many rooms in the house at 2207 Seymour Avenue were locked. "There were places we could never go. There were locks on the basement. Locks on the attic. Locks on the garage."

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Neighbours' warnings: Residents of Seymour Avenue claim police ignored reports of suspicious behaviour at the house over the years. One claimed to have alerted police to the sound of pounding on doors. Another, Elsie Cintron, told the BBC her grand-daughter saw a "naked lady crawling in the backyard". Cleveland police say they have no record of these warnings. They are sensitive to such complaints following the 2009 case of Anthony Sowell who killed 11 women at his house in the city. Police were accused then of not taking neighbours' warnings seriously.

Ariel Castro beat his ex-wife: Of the three brothers arrested, only Ariel married, and court files show he fought with his wife, Grimilda Figueroa, over the custody of their children following their divorce. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that Figueroa's injuries included a broken nose, broken ribs, a knocked-out tooth and a blood clot on the brain. Attorney Robert Ferreri claimed Ariel Castro "frequently abducts daughters and keeps them from their mother" despite his being denied visitation rights. Figueroa died in 2012. Ferreri could not be reached for comment.

Child abduction case: Ariel Castro was a school bus driver until he was fired last November after a series of mishaps culminating in his taking a bus to do his grocery shopping. The most serious incident was the one that saw police officers visit his home in 2004 but, as The Week reported yesterday, come away without entering the house. Had they done so, the ordeal of the kidnapped women might have lasted months rather than years. The reason for the police visit was an allegation of child abduction: according to The Guardian, instead of dropping off the last boy on his bus, Castro drove around for two hours, leaving the boy alone on the bus while he went for lunch. He never harmed the child but at one stage he allegedly told him:"Lay down, bitch".