Man who kidnapped, raped and used a shock collar to control teenage girl for 9 months inside shipping container sentenced to at least 45 years in prison

 A man who kidnapped a 14-year-old girl when she accepted his offer of a ride home from school because her feet were sore, held her captive for nine months and raped her repeatedly at his trailer acknowledged his crimes on Thursday and apologized. 

The girl, who was in court to hear his admission, thanked him for eventually letting her go.

Nathaniel Kibby pleaded guilty to seven counts including kidnapping, aggravated felonious sex assault and criminal threatening. He was sentenced to 45 to 90 years in prison.

Kibby, who had pleaded not guilty after his arrest, had been scheduled to go on trial next month on nearly 200 felony charges related to the girl's October 2013 disappearance and the months that followed. 

But he changed his pleas to guilty at a hearing on Thursday.

Nathaniel Kibby is escorted out of the Belknap County Superior after pleading guilty and being sentenced 45-90 years in prison for kidnapping, rape, criminal threatening and witness tampering Thursday

He kidnapped a 14-year-old girl when she accepted his offer of a ride home from school because her feet were sore and held her captive for nine months where he raped her repeatedly at his trailer

Kibby acknowledged his crimes on Thursday and apologized to the victim. The girl, who was in court to hear his admission, thanked him for eventually letting her go

Before the 35-year-old Kibby entered his new pleas, a prosecutor said Kibby had kidnapped the girl by offering her a ride home from her school and then brandishing a gun when she tried to get out of his car.

Prosecutor Jane Young said the girl and Kibby didn't know each other and she accepted the ride because she'd worn boots to school that day and her feet were blistered. 

Young said when the girl tried to get out of the car in a parking lot Kibby pulled out the gun and threatened to 'blow her brains out' and slit her throat.

Last week, a judge ruled Kibby's lawyers could not question the girl before his trial about her exposure to media coverage of the case and the amount of freedom she was given to move about his trailer in Gorham, where prosecutors say he used a stun gun, zip ties and a shock collar to control her.

Kibby was charged with kidnapping the girl on October 9, 2013, as she walked home from her high school in Conway. The girl returned to her home in North Conway the night of July 20, 2014.

Nathaniel Kibby kept the girl trapped in a storage container on his North Conway property (pictured is his home and the adjacent storage container in 2014)

Kibby was due to go on trial next month but scheduled a change of plea hearing for Thursday (pictured are detectives at Kibby's home in 2014)

Young said Kibby released the girl because he was convinced he'd 'terrorized her enough' that she wouldn't reveal his identity.

The girl waited until a week after she was home to reveal Kibby's name, which she had seen inside a cookbook in his home.

The girl, who is now 17 years old, told a packed courtroom she thinks daily about the crimes Kibby committed against her. But she also thanked him for freeing her in July 2014.

'I want you to know that I appreciate my freedom because of you and I enjoy my life because of you,' she said. 'I just want to thank you for giving me my freedom back.'

Kibby apologized for the decisions he made and said he didn't want to discuss his feelings in front of the journalists in the courtroom.

Young said that early in the girl's captivity Kibby instructed her to write a misleading letter home in an effort to throw off authorities, who'd launched a massive search for her. 

The girl still had fake nails at the time and carved his identity and vehicle information into the letter, but he caught on, zapped her with a stun gun as punishment and made her write a new letter.

Lawyers hired by the girl's family said she had suffered 'numerous acts of unspeakable violence' during her months of captivity. 

Their statement was largely a plea for privacy and did not elaborate on what she endured.

Kibby has a criminal history dating to 1998, including convictions on simple assault, criminal trespass and breach of bail conditions, according to court records.

A police officer who has known Kibby for two decades said he's very bright, opinionated and thrives on conflict. 

Repeat offender: Nathaniel Kibby is a familiar sight at the Conway Police Department. These mugshots relate to arrests for (left) criminal trespass and simple assault and (right) criminal trespass again, both in 1998

A police officer who has known Kibby (pictured Thursday) for two decades said he's very bright, opinionated and thrives on conflict

In an interview in July 2014, former Conway Lt. Chris Perley said Kibby, 'was smart, but he was also brutally myopic in whatever view he had. You could not shake him or redirect him in the way he saw the world.' 

Kibby grew up and attended school in Conway. He worked as a machinist at two gun makers — Green Mountain Rifle Barrel Co. and E.M.M. Precision.

Neighbors on the trailer park where he allegedly kept the girl lined up to give their opinions on him.

One neighbor who did not want to be named, described Kibby as a gun nut, who was obsessed with conspiracy theories, hated authority and believed that one day there would be a zombie apocalypse.

Apparently, part of the reason he had built up such a large arsenal of firearms was because he was convinced he would eventually have to use them to fight off the living dead.

The neighbor said: ‘I have known him for years and he was a very odd man. He would always talk to me about zombies and the zombie apocalypse. It was very unnerving. Most people round here avoided Nate.’

Another added: ‘He would say things like, ‘I’ll blow this whole trailer park up without even thinking about it’. That’s why we were surprised about [kidnapping the girl]. We expected him to go on a rampage or go crazy with a bomb, not kidnap a child.’

Former classmates from Kennett High School, North Conway, the same school his victim attended, revealed he was known as an anti-social bully back then.

The girl, who is now 17 years old, told a packed courtroom she thinks daily about the crimes Kibby (pictured above in 2014) committed against her