Elizabeth Smart's Horrifying Tale
Testifies she was raped daily by zealot captor.
Seven years after being kidnapped, 21-year old Elizabeth Smart finally got her day in court on Thursday when she testified against captor Brian David Mitchell in Salt Lake City. According to Smart, Mitchell was a religious zealot who used drugs and alcohol, constant brainwashing, and physical restraints to keep her from leaving, all while raping her on a daily basis. "Anything I showed resistance or hesitation to, he would turn to me and say, 'The Lord has commanded you to do this, you have to experience the lowest form of humanity to experience the highest,'" Smart testified, according to the New York Post. Smart also discussed the night she was captured from her family home, describing how Mitchell woke her up in the middle of the night with a knife against her neck. "He came into my room and held a knife to my throat and threatened me with my life and my family's life to come with him," she said. Her testimony came during a mental competency hearing for Mitchell, who has been institutionalized since his 2003 arrest after being deemed insane.
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