Parole denied for convicted killer, rapist Paul Bernardo
Serial rapist and killer Paul Bernardo pleaded unsuccessfully for a second chance on Wednesday, arguing low selfesteem drove him to commit the sexually twisted crimes he now rues and that he no longer poses any threat to the public.
Bernardo made his pitch for parole before a two-member panel, which also heard impassioned pleas from the parents of two of his murder victims that he be kept behind bars.
“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.’’
At the same time, the now 54-year-old Bernardo was adamant he has never been violent since his arrest, and would never reoffend if released.
“I’m so nice to everybody,’’ he said. “Everybody is scared but there is no reason to be scared.’’
The panel did not buy his arguments. They took about 30 minutes to turn Bernardo down for both day and full parole. Their written reasons are expected in a few weeks.
Dubbed the “Scarborough Rapist,’’ Bernardo could make another bid for release in two years. He has already spent 25 years of his life sentence in prison — most in solitary.
Bernardo was convicted in 1995 of first-degree murder, kidnapping and aggravated sexual
assault among other offences. His crimes over several years in the late 1980s and early 1990s, some of which he videotaped, had sparked widespread terror and revulsion.
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.
Mahaffy’s mother, Debbie Mahaffy, described the crushing pain the parole hearing had rekindled, saying the “unspeakable and brutally sadistic acts’’ Bernardo committed defied description.
“This is an emotional hell for us,’’ Mahaffy told the hearing at the Millhaven penitentiary, choking back tears.
Members of the media and
other observers watched the highly anticipated proceeding — Bernardo’s first attempt at parole — via videolink from nearby Bath Institution.
Bernardo, dressed in a blue T-shirt, slouched in his chair and listened with little obvious emotion, although he became animated on occasion as he answered questions. At one point, he dabbed at his eyes with a hastily proffered tissue while talking about his father.
While his parole officer said Bernardo had made minimal gains during his time behind bars, the lifer portrayed himself as someone whose self-esteem was damaged as a child by a speech impediment. He said he felt increasingly inadequate, adding he was afraid to interact with people.
Social anxiety, he said, became sexual — he fretted constantly about being unable to perform.
“The more insecure I felt, the more I tried to control,’’ he said. “My self-esteem would get better that way.’’
Bernardo also tortured and killed Kristen French, 15, of St. Catharines, Ont., in April 1992 after keeping her captive for three days. Kristen’s mother, Donna French, argued Bernardo should never see freedom again.
“How does one describe such immeasurable pain so as to give even the slightest understanding of the overwhelming sadness, the emptiness, and pain we feel even after 26 years of dealing with our loss?’’ French said.
French noted the law was changed after Bernardo’s incarceration to allow for consecutive periods of parole ineligibility.
Bernardo, who ultimately admitted raping 14 other women, was also convicted of manslaughter in the December 1990 death of Homolka’s younger sister, Tammy. The 15-year-old girl died after the pair drugged and sexually assaulted her.