Paul Bernardo: Canadian Serial Killer and Rapist

Meanwhile, Bernardo and Homolka applied to change their last names to Teale, based on a serial killer in the movie “Criminal Law”.

In December, 1992, Police finally began to check the DNA that they had collected three years earlier, when they questioned Bernardo about the Scarborough rapes.

On December 27, Bernardo attacked Karla and beat her savagely with a flashlight. Urged by her parents, Homolka pressed charges. Police arrested Paul, but later released him. Karla moved in with relatives in Brampton.

Early in 1993, lab tests confirmed that Paul Bernardo’s DNA matched that of the Scarborough Rapist. Police placed him under 24-hour surveillance. They questioned Homolka on February 9, 1993. Karla claimed ongoing spousal abuse, but did not confirm the suspicions of Bernardo’s role in the French and Mahaffy cases.

Later that night, Karla confessed details of the schoolgirl rapes to her aunt and uncle. Police re-opened the case of Tammy Homolka. Karla’s lawyer asked for full immunity.

Arrest and Conviction

Police arrested Paul Bernardo on February 17, 1993, on numerous charges. Because of weak evidence, the ensuing search of the house was restricted. It took seventy-one days and turned up little evidence, except a video of Karla performing oral sex on “Jane Doe”.

Because of Karla’s involvement in the rapes and murders, the government refused immunity, and offered a twelve-year plea bargain sentence, instead. She accepted.

On May 6, 1993, after the search warrant for the house had expired, Bernardo asked his lawyers to retrieve six videotapes hidden behind a pot light in the bathroom. He instructed them not to watch the videotapes.

On May 14, Karla Homolka began giving statements to the police. She cited battered wife syndrome, and claimed Bernardo abused and forced her into abetting the rapes. When the six videotapes came to light, they revealed Homolka as a willing participant.

On May 17, Homolka led police through the house and pointed out further evidence, including receipts for the cement used to encase Leslie Mahaffy’s dismembered body. The next day, Homolka was arraigned on two counts of manslaughter.

The Crown charged Paul Bernardo with two counts each of kidnapping, unlawful confinement, aggravated sexual assault and first degree murder, and one count of dismemberment.

As the case went to trial, more rapes, murders and disappearances emerged, including the 1990 disappearance of university student Elizabeth Bain. Her body was never found, but police charged her boyfriend. When Bernardo became a suspect, the boyfriend, who had always maintained his innocence, appealed. He was finally released in 2004.

In 1995, Paul Bernardo was sentenced to life in prison for the torture, rape and murder of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy, and other related offences.

Today

Paul Bernardo is an inmate at Kingston Penitentiary, in Kingston, Ontario. He has confessed to several more sex crimes and assaults. In a recent jailhouse interview, when asked about the disappearance of Elizabeth Bain in 1990, Bernardo tells Detective Brad Hoover: “I’ve had a hundred lifetimes of this stuff. I don’t want my mind poisoned with this case.”

Karla Homolka served her time in a medium-security facility. She was released in 2005. She gave birth to baby boy, and moved to the Caribbean.

Paul Bernardo will spend the rest of his life in prison.