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Culpable homicide: according to section 231(2) of the Criminal Code of Canada,  'Murder' is an indictable offense, and is defined as first degree murder when it is planned and deliberate. Under section 235(1, 2) the punishment for first-degree murder is life imprisonment, which is a set minimum.

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Section 273(1) of the Criminal Code of Canada states that aggravated sexual assault is an indictable offense. aggravated sexual assault is a more serious offense than simple sexual assault. sexual assault is defined as aggravated when the perpetrator, in committing a sexual assault, wounds, maims, disfigures or endangers the life of the complainant.

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CBC

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Paul Bernardo was convicted in 1995 of multiple offenses, including two first-degree murder charges, and two counts of aggravated sexual assault. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years minimum. He was designated a 'dangerous offender' which means it is unlikely he will ever be released. in 2018, he was denied parole after passing the 25 year mark.

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CityNews Toronto - Local News, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Weather, Sports

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Local News, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Weather, Sports

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In the case  R v Bernardo, the two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated sexual assault against Paul Bernardo were for the brutal killings of Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French. he was ultimately only convicted of raping and murdering those two girls, but he has allegedly assaulted at least 50 others (he has also taken credit for several of the assaults attributed to the Scarborough Rapist). He had also confessed to teaming up with his then-girlfriend, Karla Homolka, in order to drug and rape her sister Tammy. This later resulted in her death, but the couple, dubbed the schoolgirl killers, were just getting started.

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Who is Paul Bernardo and what did he do?

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Uploaded by National Post on 2018-10-17.

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Many large news networks covered the R v Bernardo case, including CBC, the Montreal gazette, CityNews, CTV, Toronto Sun, etc.

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What did you learn about the topic that surprised you?
Karla Homolka was released from her 12 year prison sentence in 2005. she was tried in 1993, 2 years before her husband. what prosecutors didn't know at the time, however, was that Paul Bernardo had instructed his lawyer, Ken Murray, to hide videotapes depicting the brutal rape, torture, and murder of their victims. those videotapes were evidence that Karla played a bigger role than originally thought by prosecutors, but by  the time they were discovered, Karla had already been convicted so there was nothing they could do.

What are you most likely to remember from this research?
I feel like I have a better understanding of the differences between the different levels of murder, and of sexual assault through my research. I also know a lot of the gruesome details and facts of R v Bernardo and R v Homolka now, haven't decided if that's a good thing or not.

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Paul Bernardo's first lawyer was eventually charged for hiding the evidence and obstructing justice.

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A lawyer who has spent seven years in social purgatory for hiding videotapes depicting the rape and torture of two girls yesterday described his lonely agony as he watched the tapes in horror and came to believe it was Karla Homolka -- not Paul Bernardo -- who killed the victims.

Lawyer Ken Murray said he was appalled by the look of "feral joy" on Ms. Homolka's face as she actively engaged in the molestation and torture of Kristen French, 15, and Leslie Mahaffy, 14. Mr. Murray said her ability to prey on victims quickly earned Ms. Homolka the nickname "the black widow" among the Bernardo defence team.

Testifying at his trial for obstructing justice by concealing the tapes for 17 months, Mr. Murray said he would happily have handed them over to the Crown much earlier had the lawyers let him cross-examine their star witness, Ms. Homolka.

Instead, Mr. Murray said, the Crown frustrated him at every turn with legal manoeuvres designed to keep Ms. Homolka out of the witness box at pretrial hearings. He said the tactic prevented her from being savaged and shown up as the conniving killer she was.

Upon handing over the videotapes, Mr. Murray said he had intended to propose striking a plea bargain for Mr. Bernardo. He said he had planned to tell the Crown: " 'We have something here to show you how incredible Karla is. We have something that will let you get out of your unconscionable deal.' The tapes would never have had to be played in court. The families would never have had to go through what they went through."

Mr. Murray also testified yesterday that when he and two colleagues pulled the videotapes out of the ceiling of the Bernardo home on May 6, 1993, he had no idea they would show evidence of any crimes. "We felt this was a bonanza for the defence," he said. "We felt that if this was real -- and the police had missed it -- then we had just hit the gold mine. We didn't know what we had, but we knew it was dramatic. We were excited. We were, I suppose, frightened. We couldn't believe it had been overlooked. It was like finding a lottery ticket without checking the numbers -- you know it is going to be good, but you don't know how good."

Weeks later, when he viewed the contents, Mr. Murray said he was traumatized for life.

"They were corrosive," he testified. "They were horrific. I suppose I was in a unique position in that up to that point, I was the only person in the world who had looked at them. No one was there to watch them with. There was no one to whom I could speak about my reactions. It was an exceedingly emotional time."

Mr. Murray said his horror was exacerbated by the fact that he had a daughter the same age as the victims. "There were many, many long nights," Mr. Murray recalled, as his wife watched in the courtroom, occasionally closing her eyes. "There is not a day that went by then -- or now -- that I don't replay them in my head."

"You had opened Pandora's Box?" defence counsel Austin Cooper asked his client. "More like Medusa's -- and the heads kept growing," Mr. Murray replied.

However, Mr. Murray said he felt no legal or moral obligation to hand the tapes over to authorities. "I felt there was an obligation on behalf of my client not to hand them over," he emphasized.

In a day of highly charged testimony, Mr. Murray also told of entire teams of Crown prosecutors fighting among themselves over who would get to prosecute Mr. Bernardo first. At one point, he said, 17 prosecutors had appeared in court on the Bernardo file. "There was no captain," Mr. Murray testified. He described one pretrial meeting in front of a judge during which the prosecutors fought over whether the Scarborough rape charges should take precedence over the murder charges.

"We sat there and watched these two Crown law offices fight for turf," Mr. Murray said. "Nobody seemed to take control. It was a dog's breakfast. We were listening to both sides bickering with each other."

On another occasion, he said senior prosecutors Leo McGuigan, James Treleaven and Casey Hill engaged him in plea-bargaining discussions -- but Mr. McGuigan insisted that Mr. Murray not mention their negotiations to the very prosecutor who was scheduled to prosecute the murder charges: Ray Houlihan.

There was other troubling behaviour by authorities, Mr. Murray said. He recounted an episode after Mr. Bernardo was arrested at which a team of homicide officers failed to videotape his interrogation because somebody forgot to switch the camera on. An audio version of the same interrogation went unaccountably missing for several months, he said, before an officer ostensibly found it in his gym bag.

Mr. Murray adamantly denied allegations yesterday that he was inept and unprepared for the case. He instead painted a portrait of a workaholic defence team that managed to ride the crest of a wave of tens of thousands of documents flooding into his office from the police and Crown.

Mr. Bernardo was charged with the murders on May 18, 1993, three weeks after a police search failed to turn up the videotapes and shortly after Ms. Homolka agreed to testify against her former husband in return for a 12-year manslaughter sentence.

Mr. Murray said that from the day he met his notorious client, Mr. Bernardo was all over the map about how he wanted himself defended, yet he was startlingly consistent about admitting to have abducted, confined and raped the Southern Ontario teenagers.

"His position was that the tapes showed him at an all-time low, and that he was guilty of most of the offences," Mr. Murray said. "He said: 'I'm probably going to jail for the rest of my life, but I did not kill those girls.' His position was: 'She should have been charged along with me. She was the killer, in the true sense. I did all the stuff I recorded, but I didn't commit the ultimate act. I'm never getting out of here, but she's out.' He wanted, in some sense, to be vindicated."

What he saw on the tapes convinced him Mr. Bernardo could be telling the truth, Mr. Murray said. He said the Karla Homolka leering out from the videotapes was far from the self-described, cringing, battered spouse who had been forced to help her husband feed his sadistic impulses.

He said other videotapes showed Ms. Homolka to be a self-confident, happily married woman who loved her husband as much as she loved being sexually serviced by female hookers or masturbating for the videocamera.

"I saw somebody who could be shown as a complete liar," Mr. Murray said. "This wasn't a lady who had been subjugated. She was happy, compliant, suggestive and willing. In my view, the tapes showed Karla as being often the initiator; often the person in control . . . Nothing on the tapes struck me that she was being dominated or coerced. In fact, there were times that Mr. Bernardo's actions appeared to be scripted -- and it was she who was holding the camera."

Mr. Murray described himself as a well connected former prosecutor who enjoyed defending just about any accused criminal who walked into his suburban office. He said the Bernardo case came to him through Mr. Bernardo's brother and father, who were directed to Mr. Murray by a pair of private detectives he knew.

Nervous in the early going yesterday, the 51-year-old lawyer soon adopted a composed and easygoing testimonial style. Mr. Murray appeared determined not to criticize any of the lawyers in the case who have cast aspersions on him, and instead complimented their skills and delicately pointed out what he perceived as shortcomings in their analysis of events.

Mr. Murray was gentle even with the prosecutors he faced, mildly expressing his frustration as they yanked away Mr. Bernardo's right to preliminary inquiries -- first in the Scarborough rape charges facing him, then in the murder charges, and even in relation to a charge of domestic assault alleging he had beaten Ms. Homolka.

Mr. Murray said he viewed each of those venues as an opportunity to "set up" Ms. Homolka, allowing her to rhyme off her self-serving account of events and then smacking her between the eyes with the videotapes.

"We would have had solid evidence, under oath, of her lies," Mr. Murray said. "It all went up in smoke. We never got a chance to set her up."

In describing the day he found the videotapes at the couple's Port Dalhousie home, Mr. Murray emphasized how incidental the discovery was to the actual intent of the visit. He said he went to the home with colleagues Kim Doyle and Carolyn MacDonald in order to cart away huge amounts of personal effects in the hope of keeping it out of he hands of ghoulish souvenir hunters as well as finding valuable evidence for the defence.

Minutes before arriving at the house, Mr. Murray said, he happened to find a letter in his briefcase that Mr. Bernardo had written days earlier. On the envelope, it instructed Mr. Murray not to open it until he was actually in the house.

When he did so, Mr. Murray found instructions on where to locate a potlight above which Mr. Bernardo had hidden some videotapes. Mr. Murray said he found them easily.

Mr. Murray said they later delivered a pre-arranged code phrase over the phone to Mr. Bernardo to let him know that the tapes he wanted had been found.

Mr. Murray testified that it would have made no sense for him not to have taken the tapes immediately. "I could have gone back there . . . but the house could have been razed or torn down and the evidence lost forever. How do I explain that to the client? 'Your defence is under 20 feet of earth?'

"My client could quite easily indicate that his defence had been prejudiced by my incompetence. Because of my unwillingness to follow his instructions, the evidence is gone forever."

John Rosen, the lawyer who ultimately defended Mr. Bernardo at his 1995 trial, testified last week for the Crown that Mr. Murray handed over a case that was in disarray. He said Mr. Murray described himself as inept and incapable of continuing to trial.

Yesterday, Mr. Murray said that his colleague appears to have been unaware of enormous volumes of meticulously filed case material, correspondence with the Crown and tentative lines of questioning for Ms. Homolka.

The only party that was reeling in disorganization was the Crown, Mr. Murray said. "Disclosure was still not completed by the time I left the file on Sept. 12, 1994," he said. "There were still outstanding issues that had not been disclosed."

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A lawyer who has spent seven years in social purgatory for hiding videotapes depicting the rape and torture of two girls yesterday described his lonely agony as he watched the tapes in horror and came to believe it was Karla Homolka -- not Paul Bernardo -- who killed the victims. Lawyer Ken Murray said he was appalled by the look of "feral joy" on Ms. Homolka's face as she actively engaged in the molestation and torture of Kristen French, 15, and Leslie Mahaffy, 14.

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Karla Homolka was Paul Bernardo's wife. She was tried before him, and plead guilty as part of a plea bargain, to two counts of manslaughter in the Mahaffy and French murders. Her sentencing took place in 1993, before Paul Bernardo's. She testified against him as part of her bargain with the crown.

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Butts, E. (2016, June 21). Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka Case. Retrieved April 8, 2019, from https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/paul-bernardo-and-karla-homolka-case

Video: who is Paul Bernardo and what did he do?  Brean, J. (2018, October 30). Paul Bernardo psychiatric report describes a remorseless killer - but perhaps not a psychopath. Retrieved April 8, 2019, from https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/paul-bernardo-psychiatric-report-describes-a-remorseless-killer-but-perhaps-not-a-psychopath

CityNews. (2018, October 17). Parole denied for convicted killer, rapist Paul Bernardo. Retrieved April 8, 2019, from https://toronto.citynews.ca/video/2018/10/17/parole-denied-for-convicted-killer-rapist-paul-bernardo/

CBC. (2010, June 17). Key events in the Bernardo/ Homolka case | CBC News. Retrieved April 8, 2019, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/key-events-in-the-bernardo-homolka-case-1.933128

CBC. (2018, October 17). Mother of Bernardo victim speaks of 'pain and horror' of attending parole hearing | CBC News. Retrieved April 8, 2019, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/bernardo-parole-mahaffy-french-1.4866556

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Criminal Code (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-46)  https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/page-48.html#h-72

Kruse Law. (2016). Aggravated Sexual Assault. Retrieved April 8, 2019, from https://www.torontosexualassault.ca/aggravated-assault

LawyerShop. (2008). The Distinction Between First And Second Degree 🤬 And Manslaughter. Retrieved April 8, 2019, from http://info.lawyershop.ca/archives/2008/09/09/the-distinction-between-first-and-second-degree-🤬-and-manslaughter/index.html

GlobalNews. (2015, July 3). Notorious killer Paul Bernardo seeking day parole | Watch News Videos Online. Retrieved April 8, 2019, from https://globalnews.ca/video/2091275/notorious-killer-paul-bernardo-seeking-day-parole

Picture: Paul Bernardo then and now  Gunn, F. (2018, October 05). Paul Bernardo set for weapon trial, accused of having 'shank' in prison. Retrieved April 8, 2019, from https://montrealgazette.com/news/paul-bernardo-set-for-weapon-trial-accused-of-having-shank-in-prison

Picture: Paul and Karla  Rogers, B. (2018, June). Canadian Serial Killer Paul Bernardo Is Appearing In Court Today. Retrieved April 8, 2019, from https://www.narcity.com/news/canadian-serial-killer-paul-bernardo-is-appearing-in-court-today

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CBC

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They were an attractive, seemingly normal couple, full of smiles in photos taken at their 1991 wedding in the Ontario town of Niagara-on-the-Lake. That happy façade made it all the harder for Canadians to accept the brutal crimes committed by Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka.

Bernardo was convicted in 1995 of the kidnapping, raping and murdering of southern Ontario teenagers Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy. Homolka portrayed herself as the innocent victim of a murderous monster. She struck a deal with prosecutors (later dubbed the "deal with the devil") and pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the deaths in exchange for a 12-year prison sentence.

But videotapes of the crimes, found after the plea bargain, showed her to be a more active participant. Public outrage about Homolka's sentence had barely cooled by the time of her extremely high-profile release from prison in 2005.

June 16, 2010

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said an agreement has been reached between all federal parties to pass a bill that would prevent notorious offenders like Karla Homolka from applying for a pardon.

June 25, 2008

Anthony Hanemaayer, convicted in connection with an attack more than 20 years previous, is acquitted by Ontario's top court. According to court documents, Bernardo admitted to Toronto police in 2006 that he carried out the knifepoint assault.

June 10, 2008

A judge rules that media outlets can broadcast Bernardo's police interview regarding the Bain case on television and the web.

Dec. 17, 2007

Reports indicate that Homolka left Canada for the Caribbean with the man she remarried, Thierry Bordelais, and her young son. Tim Danson, a lawyer for the victims' families, says he'd be "delighted" if Homolka was gone for good because "she's dangerous."

June 7, 2007

Bernardo meets with police and Crown attorneys to discuss the 1990 disappearance and presumed killing of Elizabeth Bain.

Feb. 13, 2007

Reports indicate that Homolka gave birth to a baby boy at a Montreal hospital.

Feb. 21, 2006

Paul Bernardo's lawyer reveals that his client confessed in October 2005 to at least 10 more sexual assaults. Tony Bryant tells CBC News he doesn't know why his client is admitting to the crimes so many years after the fact, but speculates "the resurgence of interest with Karla's release from prison" may have been the trigger.

Jan. 20, 2006

The movie Karla, based on the crimes of Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo, opens in 100 theatres across Canada. The Ontario Film Review Board gave the movie a restrictive 18A rating. CHUM Ltd. and Alliance Atlantis pulled the advertising for the movie from their television stations.

Dec. 6, 2005

A Quebec Court of Appeal turns down a request by the province's justice minister to appeal a lower court order lifting court-imposed restrictions on Karla Homolka's freedom.

Nov. 30, 2005

A Montreal judge overturns the 14 conditions imposed on Karla Homolka when she was released from prison on July 4, 2005. The restrictions were ordered under provisions of the Criminal Code after a judge ruled she still posed a risk to the community.

Tim Danson, the lawyer for the families of Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French, urges Quebec's attorney general to appeal the decision. He says his clients felt "like they were kicked in the stomach."

Nov. 3, 2005

The Quebec Justice Department releases a statement saying Homolka did not breach the conditions of her release in relation to the August hardware store revelations and she will not face any additional charges.

August 2005

Homolka finds work in a hardware store in Longueuil, a suburb of Montreal. Her boss, Richer Lapointe, later reveals Homolka's location to the media and releases audio tapes he made of their conversations. Homolka quits her job and goes back into hiding. Lapointe alleges she had contacted someone with a criminal record and came in contact with children, in violation of her release conditions.

July 5, 2005

Paul Bernardo, speaking through his lawyer, says Homolka attempted to murder Leslie Mahaffy on her own to prevent Mahaffy from identifying them after they raped her. Bernardo says it was his intention to release Mahaffy.

July 4, 2005

Karla Homolka is released from prison after serving her 12-year sentence. She is whisked out of the St. Anne des Plaines prison, north of Montreal, where she had been transferred about a month before her release. Reporters wait outside the prison for days to catch a glimpse of her leaving and chase various vehicles they believe are transporting her, without being sure she is inside. A prison official and the lawyer for the victims' families confirm the release.

Homolka's lawyers continue fighting in court to prevent the media from reporting on her life outside prison, including her whereabouts.

Hours after her release, Homolka grants an interview to SRC, CBC's French-language service in Montreal.

June 29, 2005

A Quebec judge turns down Karla Homolka's request for an injunction prohibiting the media from telling certain details about her life after she's released from prison.

June 3, 2005

After two days of arguments, Judge Jean R. Beaulieu agrees that Karla Homolka may pose a risk to society after she is released. He places several restrictions on her freedom that are to take effect after she is released. They include:

She is to tell police her home address, work address and who she lives with.

She has to notify police as soon as any of the above changes.

She will also have to notify police of any change to her name.

If she wants to be away from her home for more than 48 hours, she will have to give 72 hours notice.

She cannot contact Paul Bernardo, the families of Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French or Jane Doe. She also may not contact any violent criminals.

She also will be forbidden from being with people under the age of 16 and from consuming drugs other than prescription medicine.

Continue therapy and counselling.

Provide police with a DNA sample.

June 2, 2005

Karla Homolka appears in a court in Joliette, Que., as prosecutors argue that restrictions should be placed on her freedom when she is released. It is the first time she is seen in public since she testified against her former husband, Paul Bernardo, 10 years earlier.

May 19, 2005

A law passes through the Senate requiring violent criminals, including Karla Homolka, to give a DNA sample to a national databank. The bill, C-13, speeds through the minority government in part because of Homolka's impending release.

April 26, 2005

Two officers with Niagara Regional Police meet with Homolka to discuss her plans after her release from prison. The details of that conversation are not released.

April 12, 2005

Michael Bryant says Homolka will not be charged with killing her sister when she is released from prison in July.

April 11, 2005

Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant says all provinces should place restrictions on Karla Homolka's activities once she's released in July. Bryant says he will ask a Quebec court judge to impose conditions on Homolka under section 810 of the Criminal Code, which allows for curfews and other restrictions.

Jan. 14, 2005

Stephen Williams, author of two books on Bernardo and Homolka, pleads guilty to breaking a publication ban by posting the names of the couple's sexual assault victims on his website. He receives a three-year suspended sentence and is ordered to do 70 hours of community service.

Dec. 16, 2004

The National Parole Board rules that Homolka must stay in prison for her full term, ending July 5, 2005.

May 4, 2003

Williams is arrested and charged with violating a court order barring publication of courtroom exhibits used in the Bernardo and Homolka trials. Williams had used his website to show a collection of photographs, videotapes and police interviews from the cases.

February 2003

The English language version of Williams' book, and Karla: A Pact with the Devil, appears on bookstore shelves.

Nov. 13, 2002

A book on Homolka written by Stephen Williams is published in French, containing excerpts from letters between the author and Homolka. Questions arise over whether the book violates a condition of Homolka's plea bargain, which states that she would not "talk directly ... or indirectly to the media for a book ... or live endeavour." Williams says he didn't speak to Homolka about the crimes, so the argument is moot.

December 2001

The six videotapes depicting the rape and torture of Bernardo and Homolka's victims are destroyed.

January 2001

Homolka is transferred to a Montreal psychiatric hospital to undergo treatment.

Nov. 30. 2000

Crown prosecutors drop charges against author Stephen Williams. The charges alleged that Williams broke a court order by watching the Bernardo tapes. The Crown said it didn't want to air the tapes again in court, so the judge dismissed the charges.

Oct. 9, 2000

Homolka is transferred to a maximum-security prison in Saskatoon for a psychiatric examination. Homolka's lawyers attempt to block the move, saying her life would be in danger if she were removed from the prison in Joliette.

Sept. 21, 2000

The Supreme Court of Canada denies Bernardo's leave to appeal his murder convictions.

June 2000

Murray is acquitted of charges arising from his failure to turn over the Bernardo tapes.

March 2000

The Ontario Court of Appeal dismisses Bernardo's request for a new trial.

Summer 1997

Homolka is transferred to Joliette Institution in Quebec when the Kingston Prison for Women is closed.

January 1997

Ken Murray is charged with obstruction of justice and possession of child pornography for failing to turn over the Bernardo tapes.

July 1996

A six-month-long inquiry into the police investigation of Bernardo concludes that the investigation was hampered by dozens of mistakes by individual officers and by rivalries between different police departments. The inquiry concludes that some of Bernardo's crimes could have been prevented if Bernardo's DNA samples had been processed more quickly.

April 1996

An Ontario Court judge rules that videotapes showing the rape and torture of Bernardo's victims must be destroyed when they are no longer needed for legal purposes.

November 1995

Bernardo is declared a dangerous offender, meaning he will likely spend the rest of his life in jail.

Sept. 15, 1995

Bernardo is sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for 25 years.

Sept. 1, 1995

Bernardo is found guilty of all nine charges against him, including two counts of first-degree murder for killing French and Mahaffy.

June 29, 1995

Homolka testifies against Bernardo.

May 18, 1995

Bernardo's trial begins.

September 1994

Ken Murray quits as Bernardo's lawyer and hands Bernardo's videotapes over to his successor, John Rosen. Rosen turns the videos over to police later in the month.

July 1993

Homolka pleads guilty to two counts of manslaughter and receives a 12-year jail sentence. Her pleas and the statement of facts agreed to by her lawyer and the Crown are both covered by a publication ban ordered by the judge to ensure a fair trial for Bernardo.

June 28, 1993

Homolka's trial begins.

May 1993

The plea agreement between Crown prosecutors and Homolka's lawyers is finalized.

May 6, 1993

Ken Murray, Bernardo's lawyer, gains access to Bernardo's home. Murray retrieves the videotapes from above a ceiling light fixture in the upstairs bathroom. He would keep the videos in his possession for 16 months.

Feb. 19, 1993

A search warrant is executed in the Bernardo home. During the 71-day search of the St. Catharines house that follows, police fail to find videotapes containing the recordings of the rapes of Mahaffy, French, Tammy Homolka and at least one other girl.

Feb. 17, 1993

Bernardo is arrested. An inquiry into the Bernardo case would later find that officers in charge violated Bernardo's charter rights by not allowing him to call a lawyer despite his repeated requests, making his initial eight-hour interrogation inadmissible as evidence.

January 1993

After Bernardo beats Homolka with a flashlight, leaving her with two black eyes, she leaves their home and files charges against him.

December 1992

The Centre of Forensic Sciences begins DNA testing of the samples Bernardo provided in 1990.

April 30, 1992

French's body is found.

April 16, 1992

Bernardo, with the assistance of Homolka, kidnaps Kristen French from a church parking lot. After raping, torturing and killing her, they leave her body naked in a ditch, her hair cut off.

June 29, 1991

Bernardo and Homolka are married in a lavish ceremony. Mahaffy's dismembered body is found encased in concrete in Lake Gibson near St. Catharines.

June 14, 1991

Bernardo kidnaps 14-year-old Leslie Mahaffy from outside her house. With Homolka, he rapes and murders her.

Feb. 1, 1991

Bernardo and Homolka move into a rented house in St. Catharines, Ont.

January 1991

Bernardo picks up a young female hitchhiker, brings her back to the Homolka home and rapes her in Karla Homolka's bedroom. He drops her off on a back street.

Dec. 23, 1990

After a Homolka family Christmas party, Bernardo and Karla Homolka drug Tammy Homolka with animal tranquilizers Karla stole from her work. Bernardo and Karla Homolka rape Tammy while she's unconscious. Tammy later chokes on her own vomit and dies. Bernardo tells police he tried to revive her, but failed, and her death is ruled an accident.

Nov. 20, 1990

Bernardo provides hair, blood and saliva samples to Metro Toronto police as part of their Scarborough Rapist investigation.

July 1990

According to Bernardo's testimony, he and Karla Homolka serve her younger sister, Tammy, a spaghetti dinner spiked with Valium stolen from Karla's workplace. Bernardo rapes Tammy for about a minute before she starts to wake up.

1990

Bernardo loses his job at accounting firm Price-Waterhouse. He would later turn to cigarette smuggling to make money.

Dec. 24, 1989

Bernardo and Homolka are engaged.

Oct. 17, 1987

Karla Homolka, 17, meets Paul Bernardo, 23, at a hotel restaurant in Scarborough, Ont.

May 1987

A young woman is raped in Scarborough, Ont., the first in a chain of rapes committed by the person the media dubs the Scarborough Rapist. Paul Bernardo would later admit to the sexual assaults of at least 14 women in southern Ontario. At one point, Bernardo faced 53 charges related to the rape - and in some cases, murder - of young women.

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Key events in the Bernardo/Homolka case | CBC News

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They were an attractive, seemingly normal couple, full of smiles in photos taken at their 1991 wedding in the Ontario town of Niagara-on-the-Lake. That happy façade made it all the harder for Canadians to accept the brutal crimes committed by Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka.

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Psychology behind the schoolgirl killer 

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Psychology behind the schoolgirl killer 

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Toronto Sun

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Scarborough Rapist and schoolgirl killer Paul Bernardo "objectified women" and still lacks insight into the triggers for his horrific crimes, his parole decision stated Tuesday.

The two-member Parole Board of Canada decision that rejected his bid for day or full parole indicated Bernardo has had "a distorted view of women for most of his life and changes in this regard remain to be seen.

"The Board finds you showed minimal insight into your offending, which ..... suggests you have been keen over the years to come up with your own unsubstantiated reasons for your criminal behaviour," the decision stated.

"You recognized the horror of your crimes but focused mainly on the fact that your behaviour was a result of an anxiety disorder about feeling inadequate since childhood and a lack of self-esteem," the decision stated.

"You used that self-diagnosis as a mantra to dissociate yourself from your actions.

"You showed a tendency at the hearing to avoid speaking about sexual self-gratification and the sadistic and violent nature of your behaviour.

"You told the Board that you had no intention of hurting the women you sexually assaulted. The Board reminded you that you used a knife and rope against several of the victims," the decision stated.

"Claiming today that you did not intend to hurt them adds to the Board's belief that you lack insight."

Bernardo, now 54, claimed low self-esteem compelled him to commit the sexually twisted crimes he now regrets and that he no longer poses any threat to the public.

"I'm a very flawed person. I know I'm not perfect," Bernardo told the Parole Board of Canada panel.

"What I did was so dreadful. I hurt a lot of people. I cry all the time."

The panel did not buy his arguments or his self-serving tears, denying both his day and full parole in a decision reached in under 30 minutes.

"Bernardo will present an undue risk to society if released, and that your release will not contribute to the protection of society," the written decision stated.

The sexual sadist could make another bid for release in two years. He has already spent 25 years of his life sentence in prison - mostly in solitary.

Bernardo was convicted in 1995 of first-degree murder, kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault among other offences. His crimes spanning several years in the late 1980s and early 1990s, some of which he videotaped, terrorized and repulsed the Toronto and Niagara regions.

Among his brutal acts, Bernardo and his then-wife Karla Homolka kidnapped, tortured and killed Leslie Mahaffy, 14, of Burlington, Ont., in June 1991 at their home in Port Dalhousie, Ont., before dismembering her body, encasing her remains in cement and dumping them in a nearby lake.

OBSESSION SPARKED RISK OF RE-OFFENDING

Psychopath and severe sexual sadist Paul Bernardo had phone calls and letters "with highly sexualized" content with a London woman who spoke of marrying him in 2014.

Parole documents revealed that Bernardo's communications with the woman bore similarities to his crimes.

"You quickly demonstrated that you were still obsessed with the sexual component of the relationship ... such an increase (in masturbation) escalates your risk to reoffend," the parole decision stated.

"Also worrisome is the fact that you could see yourself having anal sex with the woman in doggy-style positions. You even commented on her adversity to pain," the decision stated.

Bernardo couldn't grasp how this "was bringing him back into his offence cycle where he like to dominate with what he called greater sex acts.

"As you said at the hearing, you went back to your old patterns," the decision stated.

Bernardo victimized 20 women between 14 and 23 years of age and, as the Scarborough Rapist, violated these women from behind in brutal knifepoint attacks.

The London woman inquired about marrying the dangerous offender and serial rapist but eventually cut off communication which greatly distressed him, the decision stated.

In his 2009 autobiography, Bernardo described his former girlfriends and two murder victims' physical attributes, including their bra sizes, and the parole board asked why he did so.

"You claimed that mentioning their bra sizes showed that they looked like adult women, as you didn't want to be seen as a pedophile," the decision stated.
spazzano@postmedia.com

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'DISTORTED VIEW OF WOMEN': Paul Bernardo lacks insight into his crimes, parole board ruling says

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Scarborough Rapist and schoolgirl killer Paul Bernardo "objectified women" and still lacks insight into the triggers for his horrific crimes, his parole decision stated Tuesday. The two-member Parole Board of Canada decision that rejected his bid for day or full parole indicated Bernardo has had "a distorted view of women for most of his life and changes in this regard remain to be seen.