“Why did you dismember my daughter? »
Posted at 11:48 a.m.
Updated at 5:35 p.m.
This is one of the questions asked by Debbie Mahaffy to Paul Bernardo, the murderer of her daughter Leslie, while he was a few meters from her in a room of a penitentiary in the Hautes-Laurentides, Tuesday. The murderer and sex offender, sentenced to life in prison in 1995, tried for the third time to obtain parole, something he was again refused.
“You committed numerous crimes over a long period of time, violent and deadly crimes. There were dozens of victims, and you never took into account what they suffered. You acted predatorily, in a brutal manner, and the seriousness of your actions increased over time,” explained Commissioner Tanya Nouwens, to justify the decision of the Parole Board of Canada (CLCC) to refuse the parole’s request. 60 year old criminal.
She recalled that Paul Bernardo was declared a dangerous offender and that his last three psychological evaluations concluded that his risk of reoffending was above average.
“You represent too high a risk for us to authorize your release on conditions or for day trips,” concluded the commissioner, after a short period of deliberations, at the end of the hearing which lasted all day and which was the scene of emotional statements from the victims’ families.
Gruesome murders
Paul Bernardo is serving a life sentence for the kidnapping, rape and murder of two teenage girls, Kristen French, 15, and Leslie Mahaffy, 14, in the early 1990s near St. Catharines, Ontario. Committed with the help of his then wife, Karla Homolka, these crimes shocked the country.
Bernardo, convicted in 1995, could not apply for parole for 25 years, which he did in 2018 and 2021.
On Tuesday, at the medium-security La Macaza penitentiary, he spent several hours trying to convince commissioners that he was ready to be released on conditions, or at least to go on escorted outings, thanks to a program undertaken behind bars to treat his sexual deviance.
Unable to leave the penitentiary to live in a halfway house, he requested day trips to continue this therapy in Saint-Jérôme or Montreal.
Gestures of revenge
Dressed in a sky blue t-shirt, with shoulder-length hair, the inmate explained his crimes by talking about the neglect of his parents and the attacks of which his mother was herself a victim. “I wanted to do to others what she had suffered,” he said, adding that he used violence to feel more powerful, he who had low self-esteem .
“I hope you understand that Bernardo’s behaviors are those of a sadist, manipulator and psychopath, and that he is a risk to the safety of the public. After all these years, he is unable to acknowledge that he kidnapped, raped, tortured and killed Leslie, then destroyed and dumped her body,” said an emotional Debbie Mahaffy, reading a statement to the PBC before let the decision be made.
“His designation as a ‘dangerous offender’ places him in a different category of cruelty and sexual psychopathy. […] He talks about his crimes like normal people talk about the temperature, without a trace of humanity. It’s a blood-curdling experience. »
“It’s been over 32 years since my daughter Kristen was kidnapped, sexually assaulted, beaten, tortured, humiliated and murdered, only to be dumped on the side of the road like trash. This loss will follow us for the rest of our lives,” said Donna French, who testified by teleconference about the impact of the crime on her family.
In La Macaza, Paul Bernardo explained that he had a job, among other things, maintaining government land. He was transferred to this facility in 2023, after being incarcerated in a maximum security penitentiary in Millhaven, Ontario, where he was held in solitary confinement for 30 years.
Insufficient progress
This transfer, which the families had decried, allowed him to undertake this therapy. However, his progress was not sufficient, explained his correctional officer, Rose Kendall, before the CLCC.
That’s why his case team recommended not letting him out of jail, even for a few hours. “He overestimates the progress made in prison and underestimates the risks he still poses to society,” she added.
Bernardo is not officially classified as a psychopath, the speaker said, but his latest psychological evaluation confirms several worrying tendencies, including his narcissistic personality and antisocial traits.
With his ex-partner Karla Homolka, Paul Bernardo kidnapped, tortured, raped and murdered Leslie Mahaffy, 14, in June 1991, before dismembering her body, pouring it in cement and throwing it in a lake. He did it again in April 1992, kidnapping and killing 15-year-old Kristen French.
Bernardo also admitted to raping 14 other women, in addition to being convicted of homicide for the December 1990 death of Karla Homolka’s 15-year-old sister, Tammy, which occurred after She was allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted by the couple.
Homolka pleaded guilty to homicide charges for his sister’s death. She testified against her ex-husband. She served a 12-year prison sentence before being released in 2005. She has since remarried and had children. According to the most recent reports published about her, she lived in Montérégie.
Related News :