Paul Bernardo tells parole hearing he felt justified with savage behaviour
Posted October 17, 2018 10:55 am.
Last Updated October 17, 2018 12:22 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO (660 NEWS) – Convicted rapist and killer Paul Bernardo is telling a parole hearing that he did horrible things in the past.
As he asks for release, Bernardo says he cries every day over the crimes he committed.
He says that at the time, he felt justified in his savage behaviour, but no longer.
He says he had long suffered anxiety and performance issues and his crimes were an attempt to deal with that.
Bernardo is serving a life sentence for the kidnapping, rapes and first-degree murders of two teen girls in the early 1990s.
The designated dangerous offender has been eligible for full parole since February, having served 25 years behind bars.
“What I did was so dreadful. I hurt a lot of people,” Bernardo told parole board member Suzanne Poirier. “I cry all the time.”
Poirier said that to the parole board, Bernardo’s empathy seemed to be recent.
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Bernardo’s crimes over several years in the late 1980s and early 1990s, some of which he videotaped, sparked widespread terror and revulsion.
Among them, 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.
In her victim impact statement, Debbie Mahaffy said choosing to participate in the hearing has not been cathartic, rather it is the opposite. “This is an emotional hell for us.”
“Preparing for this parole hearing has been gut wrenching for our family. We have to relive Leslie’s pain and horror – our pain and horror, as if it happened yesterday. It is a nightmare,” she writes.
Mahaffy says the hearing rips apart all the healing they have worked so hard for over the last quarter century. She adds that she doesn’t want to be here, doesn’t want to be in the same room or have her presence or comments “add to Bernardo’s entertainment as surely this process will.”
“The effect of this parole hearing allows Bernardo to abduct our beautiful memories of Leslie as he has inserted himself and the ugliness of her death into our lives yet again.”
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Bernardo, dressed in a blue T-shirt, slouched in his chair and listened with little obvious emotion.
Dubbed the “Scarborough rapist,” Bernardo also tortured and killed Kristen French, 15, of St. Catharines, Ont., in April 1992 after keeping her captive for three days.
In her victim impact statement, Donna French said Bernardo should not benefit because of the timing of his murders.
“Bernardo has never accepted responsibility for his sadistic and unspeakable criminal behaviour. He has never expressed any remorse,” writes French. “Any suggestion to the contrary by Bernardo is self-serving, disingenuous and done as part of a performance to manipulate the system for parole purposes.”
Both impact statements end by quoting Chief Justic Patrick LeSage, who presided over Bernardo’s trial: “You [Bernardo] require [jail][and] in my view, for the rest of your natural life.”
One of Bernardo’s surviving victims also spoke at the hearing, describing how she was walking home on an evening in May 1988 when he attacked her from behind, dragged her into some bushes and raped her. The result has been emotional devastation from which she has never recovered, she said.
“After the assault, I really became a shell of a person,” she said. “He should never be considered for any freedom for the rest of his life.”
Bernardo’s parole officer said he had made few if any gains during his time behind bars.
Read the complete victim impact statements made by Debbie Mahaffy and Donna French below:
Victim Impact Statement of … by on Scribd
Victim Impact Statement of … by on Scribd
