One of Canada’s most notorious serial killers is set to appear before a parole board today to learn his fate.
Paul Bernardo was convicted of sexual assault, kidnapping and murder in the early 1990s in one of the most ‘sensational and sinister cases in Canadian history.’
The 60-year-old convict, who has been denied parole twice before, is currently serving an indeterminate life sentence for the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of 15-year-old Kristen French and 14-year-old Leslie Mahaffy in Ontario.
Bernardo was also convicted of manslaughter following the death of his then-wife Karla Homolka’s sister, Tammy, in December 1990.
The Tuesday hearing will take place before the Parole Board of Canada at the La Macaza Institution in Quebec.
Bernardo was transferred to the medium-security La Macaza institution following a stint in a maximum-security facility in Ontario, a move that garnered public outcry last year.
The parole hearing featured victim impact statements, though only Leslie Mahaffy’s mother appeared in-person before the board. Others delivered their statements virtually.
Through the hearing, the board is seeks to asses Bernardo’s risk to the public if he is to be released on parole.
By law, commissioners have 15 days to render a decision. However it is possible they make a decision immediately.
The Tuesday hearing saw statements from six different individuals, all deeply and forever impacted by the horrendous crimes committed by Bernardo and his accomplice.
Leslie Mahaffy’s brother, Ryan Mahaffy who was only seven at the time of his sister’s untimely death, is now 40-years-old and once-again having to rehash his sister’s gruesome murder.
‘I was just 7 when Leslie was abducted, raped, murdered, dismembered and discarded in concrete blocks.
I was 11 when I wrote and read a victim impact statement, to the murderer who ripped her from my life at his sentencing. Today, I’m 40.’
‘Since then, my parents have borne the brunt of these matters to help shield me from the continuing agony of this dangerous offender’s existence. My mother, in particular, has fought for more than twice my sister’s short lifetime, hoping to keep him where he belongs,’ he added.
Donna French, Kristen French’s mother, delivered her statement virtually: ‘As of this date it has been 11,680 days that I have had to live without my sweet, beautiful daughter,’ she wrote preparing her statement on October 3.
‘Each day I’m not able to hug her, kiss her, tell her how proud I am of her and how very much I love her. For a mother, that is an agony for which there are no words.’
She described all of the would-have-been moments, like her daughter’s high school graduation, wedding or the children she would hopefully bear one day.
‘I’ve longed for the girlish giggles of Kristen and her friends at her birthday parties, the sleepovers, the skating competitions, the pool parties, school concerts, and family vacations.
‘Kristen’s friends are all now married and have children. Her boyfriend is now a grandfather; and one of her best friends is a grandmother. They are GRANDPARENTS! Kristen never even got the opportunity to become a MOTHER!’ French added.
Speaking in person was Leslie Mahaffy’s mother, Debbie, who made it clear this would be her third time delivering a victim impact statement since her daughter’s horrific murder in 1991.
‘I am writing this, my third Victim Impact Statement for the third parole hearing for Paul Bernardo who murdered our daughter and sister, Leslie Mahaffy in June of 1991.
‘Once again, I am searching for the most compelling words to convey to you the impact of Leslie’s abduction, torture, rape, murder and the desecration of her body after her death has had on her father, brother and myself, her cousins and friends and our community,’ she added.
‘Simply put, the impact of the death of our Leslie remains painful and most difficult.’
Mahaffy went on to describe her deep-rooted dissatisfaction with Bernardo’s ‘regularity of entitlement’ to such hearings, adding that the convict’s ‘privacy rights’ outweigh her right to know.
‘There is another aspect to the impact of Paul Bernardo’s offences that have a profound impact on me, such as the regularity of his entitlement to parole hearings; the short notice given to us for the scheduled hearing date; the absence of accommodation to change the hearing dates when Paul Bernardo can and has changed his hearing dates on multiple occasions; the absence of transparency in transferring him from maximum security to medium security; the absence of transparency in providing us with information and documents relied upon for this parole hearing because his “privacy” rights outweigh our right to know and the public’s right to know.’
Bernardo’s now-infamous killing spree began back in 1987 when in just 13 months he allegedly sexually assaulted several women before joining forces with his then-fiancée, Karla Homolka, in 1990.
Together, the ‘young and beautiful’ couple, who came to be known as the ‘Barbie and Ken’ killers, kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and murdered two young women.
The pair met when Homolka, originally from St. Catharine’s, Ontario, was just 17 years old and Bernardo, from the Scarborough area of Toronto, was 23.
The two quickly fell in love – but while their romance was blossoming, Bernardo was secretly attacking women across southern Ontario.
According to a 2022 documentary, Bernardo had a difficult childhood; his mother was verbally abusive and at age 16, he found out that his father wasn’t actually his biological dad – something that’s been said to have greatly affected him.
As a teen, it was reported that he started looking through his female neighbors’ windows while they undressed. But despite his inappropriate behavior behind closed doors, he was able to keep it a secret from everyone around him.
During his high school and college years, he had several girlfriends who all later accused him of becoming ‘abusive.’
Throughout late 1987 and early 1988, 11 different women across the Scarborough-area were attacked by a man who had become known as the Scarborough Rapist.
The attacker would grab the women at night, and sexually assault them from behind so they couldn’t see his face.
‘This was a very dangerous sub-type of rapist. He was very anger-based, perhaps even sadistic in nature,’ Gregg McCrary, former FBI profiler who worked on the case, revealed.
Eventually, one of the women was able to get a look at her attacker’s face and she helped the police create a composite sketch that was later released to the public.
Immediately, many of Bernardo’s friends noticed a resemblance between him and the sketch – and they contacted authorities, who brought him in for questioning.
The police then took some of his DNA and sent it away for testing – but the sample mysteriously disappeared.
Homolka soon started to learn about her then-fiancé’s sadistic sexual deviations, and according to the documentary, two days before Christmas in 1990, she agreed to help him drug her then-15-year-old sister, Tammy, so that he could have sex with her.
‘He talked about how he really liked her and how she was getting really cute,’ she told police of Bernardo’s fascination with Tammy.
‘He kept on pushing and pushing and pushing. Finally I said, “OK,” thinking it would just be one time, that’s it, it would shut him up,’ she added of her decision to help him rape her sister. ‘I figured he’d stop bothering me and hurting me.’
Together, the pair laced Tammy’s drink with sleeping pills.
Bernardo allegedly raped the teenager while Homolka held her down, and he then ordered his then-fiancée to rape her too – while videotaping the entire thing.
Afterwards, Tammy began to vomit and she tragically choked on her own throw up, resulting in her suffocating to death.
On June 15, 1991, just days before their wedding, Bernardo woke Homolka up in the middle of the night with a present – a young girl he had kidnapped.
He had taken 14-year-old Leslie Mahaffy from the backyard of her home in Burlington, Canada, and had planned to keep her as his sex slave.
He, with with Homolka’s knowledge, held her captive for hours, repeatedly assaulting her and recording the attacks on video – and less than 24 hours later, she was strangled to death.
It’s unclear which of them killed Leslie, but Homolka told police that she never touched the young girl, just watched while her husband did.
Two weeks later, on the day of their wedding, Leslie’s body was found chopped up into small pieces by fishermen at Lake Gibson.
On April 16, 1992, the newlyweds abducted 15-year-old Kristen French while she was walking home from school.
According to eyewitnesses, Homolka asked the teen to come over to their car because they needed help with directions, when Bernardo grabbed her and forced her into the vehicle.
Karla admitted to ‘holding Kristen’s head down’ during the car ride, as well as unplugging their phones, closing their blinds, and locking their doors once they got to their house, police footage revealed.
The couple kept Kristen in their home for days, where she was raped, sodomized, beaten, and eventually strangled to death. Her body was discovered in a ditch on the side of the road days later.
Again, Homolka claimed that she didn’t touch Kristen during that time – but that she was present as her husband committed the terrible crimes.
She also told police that she helped guard the teenager, who was bound with electrical cord, by watching over her with a rubber mallet when he would go on errands.
She said she grew close to the victim during their time together, since they would have ‘girl talk,’ which made it ‘hurt more’ when he killed her.
Homolka recalled Paul ‘anally raping’ Kristen in front of her before ‘strangling’ her to death.
‘Her feet were tied with electrical chord, and there was electrical chord around her neck,’ she told police.
‘He anally raped her and then he strangled her after he was done. It stands out really clear in my head because the night before I left him he did the exact same thing to me only he didn’t kill me.’
In January of 1993, she decided to leave her husband after he allegedly beat her with a flashlight, leaving her with two black eyes and a broken rib.
Around the same time, Bernardo’s DNA sample – which had been collected two years earlier while police were investigating the Scarborough Rapist – was finally processed.
After they got caught, Homolka claimed that a ‘physically and verbally abusive’ Bernardo made her commit the gruesome crimes with him, and that she too was a victim.
She was offered a plea deal from prosecutors in exchange for her testimony against her then-husband.
Karla was convicted on two counts of manslaughter and received a 12-year sentence.
However, it wasn’t until after she had been sentenced that police found the video tapes the couple had taken while committing the crimes, which showed her not only helping Paul in his acts, but also participating in some of them herself.
The case, and Homolka’s sentence, swept the nation, becoming one of the most controversial rulings Canada has ever seen.