Deadly Innocence-- by Alan Cairns, Scott Burnside

Karla Leanne Homolka, now Karla Leanne Teale, was born May 4, 1970, in Port Credit, Ontario, Canada and attended Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School in St. Catharines, Ontario.

On October 17, 1987, seventeen year old Karla met Paul Bernardo, 23, a University of Toronto graduate, in a hotel restaurant during a Toronto convention. Within hours they were had sex in a hotel room.

December 24, 1989, Paul and Karla became engaged.

In 1990 after Paul lost his job at Price-Waterhouse, he began smuggling cigarettes to make money.

Paul later confessed to being the "Scarborough Rapist," committing at least 14 rapes in the Scarborough, Ontario area before he met Karla. Paul provided hair, blood and saliva samples to Toronto police for their Scarborough rapist investigation on November 20, 1990.

On December 23, 1990, Karla stole Halothane, an animal anesthetic, from her workplace. Karla planned to give Paul her younger sister, Tammy, as a Christmas present. They served Tammy spaghetti spiked with Valium stolen from Karla's work. Karla fed Tammy a mixture of alcohol and halcion to sedate her before they covered her face with a halothane-saturated cloth. Paul raped Tammy for about a minute before she woke up. As a result of the drugs, Tammy choked to death on her own vomit. Her death was ruled an accident.

After Paul picked up a young female hitchhiker in mid -January 1991, he brought her to Karla's bedroom in the Homolka home to rape her. Afterward he dropped her off on a back street. The following month they moved into a rented house in St. Catharines suburbs.

On June 14, 1991, while stealing license plates for his cigarette smuggling operation, Paul met Leslie Mahaffy, who was locked out of her home. He invited her to his car for a cigarette, then drove her to his home, against her will. Karla and Paul kept her as a sex slave and they videotaped assaults. After days of torture they killed her In their basement. Paul cut up her body with a circular saw and Karla washed the body parts before placing them in concrete.

June 29, 1991, Leslie's body parts were found floating, encased in cement, in a city lake by a couple canoeing the same day that .Karla and Paul had a fairy tale wedding, before riding off in horse-drawn carriage at Niagara-on-the-Lake.

A newspaper clipping found in their home described a violent rape in Hawaii on their honeymoon. Due to extradition issues, the rape was never prosecuted.

April 16, 1992, in a church parking lot, with map in hand, pretending to be lost, Karla asked 15-year-old Kristen French for directions. Paul approached her from behind with a knife and forced her into the car. They sexually abused and tortured her for days. They killed her before Easter dinner with Karla's family. Kristen's body was found in a ditch with her hair cut off on April 30, 1992.

Karla left Paul in January 1993, after he allegedly beat her with a flashlight. A physician called it the worst case of wife assault he had ever seen. Karla had two black eyes, a hemorrhage in the left eye, a contused forehead, bruises and swelling on her neck, arms, legs and a puncture wound above her knee.

Paul was arrested on February 17, 1993. The officers violated his legal rights by not allowing him to call an attorney despite his repeated requests making his initial eight-hour interrogation inadmissible as evidence.

A search warrant was executed in Paul's home on February 19, 1993. During a 71-day search the police did not find the videotapes of the rapes of Leslie, Kristen, Tammy or anyone else. The home owners later demolished the home and sold the property.

Karla used an "abused spouse" defense. The Canadian Crown offered her a plea bargain for Karla’s testimony against her husband. The plea deal was signed in May 1993. Karla's plea bargain was labeled "Two for Tammy" for two counts of manslaughter, adding two years to her ten-year sentence making it a twelve-year sentence.

After Karla's plea deal, videotapes were discovered in their rented home revealing her involvement and participation. May 6, 1993, Paul's lawyer, Ken Murray, went to Bernardo's home to retrieve videotapes from an upstairs bathroom ceiling light fixture. These six hidden videotapes showed the rapes of Tammy Lyn Homolka, Kristen French, and Leslie Mahaffy. Murray kept the videos for 16 months to prove Karla was not as innocent as she and the Crown maintained. When Murray resigned in September 1994 and turned the videotapes over to John Rosen. Paul's new attorney. In 1997 Murray was charged with obstruction of justice and possession of child pornography for not turning over the videotapes. He was acquitted in June 2000. The police took possession of the tapes in September 1994.

Police eventually found a tape of the couple with an unidentified American prostitute and Karla raping an unidentified unconscious girl. Later police discovered the full tapes revealing the minor's identity.

Prosecutors had the opportunity to charge Karla with another crime and prosecute her for her lies in earlier testimony but on May 18, 1995, they made a final agreement not to prosecute Karla further and not to break the deal.

June 28, 1993, Karla's trial began. She plead guilty on two counts of manslaughter receiving a ten-year prison sentence in July 1993. Her pleas and the statement of facts were protected by a publication ban to ensure a fair trial for Paul. Karla was sent to the Kingston Prison for Women.

Paul's trial began May 18, 1995. Paul claimed the murders of Kristen and Leslie were accidental. On June 29, 1995, Karla testified against Paul. The videotapes were shown to Karla as she testified against Paul. He was found guilty of all nine charges against him, including two counts of first-degree murder for killing Kristen and Leslie on September 1, 1995. He was sentenced to life in prison on September 15, 1995. On November 1995, he was declared a "Dangerous Offender," ensuring he will not be released on parole.

Paul enjoyed stories about serial killers, including Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho. His assumed the surname, "Teale," in homage to the fictional serial killer Martin Thiel, played by Kevin Bacon in Criminal Law.

April 1996, an Ontario Court judge ruled that videotapes showing the rape and torture of Paul's victims must be destroyed after they are no longer needed for legal purposes.

In July 1996, a six-month-long inquiry into the police investigation of Paul concluded the investigation was hampered by numerous mistakes made by officers and police department rivalries. If his DNA samples had been processed in a timely manner Paul's later crimes could have been prevented.

In his book, "Invisible Darkness," Stephen Williams indicated these tapes were available in some underground circles at high prices. Williams sold segments of the video to Home Box Office for use in the show "Autopsy." Home Box Office aired short segments of the rape of Tammy in "Autopsy 8." The videotapes do not show the deaths, but the infliction of injuries that caused the deaths. On November 30, 2000, prosecutors dropped charges that Williams broke a court order by watching the tapes. Since the Crown didn't want to air the tapes in court again, the judge dismissed the charges. Williams was arrested on May 4, 2003, for the publication of courtroom exhibits.

Paul was convicted of Tammy's murder based on an autopsy after her body was exhumed.

Robert Baltovich was convicted for the 1990 murder of 22-year-old Elizabeth Bain. Baltovich contends Paul killed her. Witnesses testified to seeing Elizabeth, an acquaintance of Paul’s, with a blond man matching his description before she vanished. December 2, 2004, the Ontario Court of Appeal set aside Robert's conviction and ordered a new trial. In 1998, the Derek Finkle book “No Claim to Mercy,” presented evidence tying Paul to the murder.

Homolka was transferred to Joliette Institution in Quebec during the summer of 1997 when the Kingston Prison for Women closed. During her imprisonment psychologists agreed Karla exhibited severe clinical depression, battered spousal syndrome, and post traumatic stress disorder.

Dr. Sharon Williams, an expert on sex offenders and psychopaths, evaluated her between 1996 and 1999, and concluded that Karla was not a psychopath. Karla participated in a treatment programs in prison. She refused to participate in a program for male sexual offenders. She earned a bachelor's degree in psychology with high grades from Queen's University.

The Ontario Court of Appeals dismissed Paul’s request for a new trial in March 2000. The Supreme Court of Canada denied Paul’s appeals on September on 21, 2000.

September 22, 2000, a Montreal Gazette article and photo inferred Karla was in a lesbian relationship with Christina Sherry a child-rapist. The article was accompanied by a photo of the two together. Independently wealthy, Lynda Verroneau, now convicted of bank robbery, sold pictures and stories to the media claiming Karla pretended to be her lover to get lingerie and a computer. In January 2003 the Toronto Sun published pictures of Karla in Joliette sunbathing, playing with a cat, and on a swing set.

October 9, 2000, Karla was transferred to a maximum-security prison in Saskatoon for a psychiatric examination. After Karla received death threats at Joliette, she was transferred to Ste-Anne-des-Plaines prison north of Montreal where her boyfriend, Jean-Paul Gerbet, was incarcerated for the 1998 murder of his ex-girlfriend. Karla was transferred to a Montreal psychiatric hospital to undergo treatment in January 2001.

In December 2001, the six videotapes of victims being abused to death were destroyed.

March 2001 and again in March 2002, the National Parole Board denied Karla’s application for early release, stating she was at risk to kill again in .

Stephen Williams was arrested and charged May 4, 2003, for illegal publication of courtroom exhibits. He wrote a book on Homolka, published in French in November 2002, containing excerpts from letters between the author and Karla. The English version, “A Pact with the Devil,” Karla was published in February 2003. Ontario Police imposed 94 additional charges against Williams related to his books in October 2003. He was awarded a grant on May 2004, from Human Rights Watch, for legal costs. On January 14, 2005, after pleading guilty, he received a three-year suspended sentence and 70 hours of community service

The National Parole Board ruled on December16, 2004 that Karla must stay in prison for her full term. In May 2005, Karla officially changed her name to Karla Leanne Teale. Teale is the same name Paul took from his hero, a fictional serial killer, Martin Thiel, in the film Criminal Law.

Karla appeared in court June 2, 2005, in Joliette, Quebec as prosecutors requested restrictions on her freedom. This was the first time she was seen in public since she testified against Paul 10 years earlier. Judge Jean R. Beaulieu ruled Karla still posed a risk to society and imposed the following conditions of her release on June 3, 2005:

She is required notify the police of any changes in her name, home and workplace addresses, and who she lives with.

If she leaves home for more than 48 hours, she must give the police 72 hours notice.

She is prohibited from any contact with Paul, violent criminals, families of her victims, and anyone under the age of 16.

She is prohibited from consuming any drugs other than prescription medicine.

She is required to continue therapy and counseling.

She must provide police with a DNA sample.

A judge must approve her release application every year.

There is a maximum two year prison term for violating the order.

June 29, 2005, a Quebec judge turned down Karla’s request prohibiting the media from divulging details about her life after her release. Justice Paul-Marcel Bellavance ruled the public has a right to know her location because of the severity of her crimes. Another court ruled she could still be dangerous.

Karla, 35, was released from Ste-Anne-des-Plaines prison on July 4, 2005, after serving a 12-year sentence. The same day, speaking in French, she gave an interviewed to Radio-Canada television. Her mother was present but stayed off camera.

Before Karla's release, Paul was interviewed by police. July 5, 2005, his lawyer, Tony Bryant, told the media Paul wanted to free the girls they held captive. Leslie saw Paul's face when her blindfold fell off, Karla thought she recognized him, and it was Karla's plan to murder her by injecting an air bubble into her bloodstream, causing an embolism. Karla attempted to murder Leslie after they raped her. Paul said Karla participated in a kidnapping and a rape that were not widely reported.

In October 2005, Paul Bernardo confessed to at least 10 more sexual assaults.

November 30, 2005, Quebec Superior Court Judge James Brunton lifted the restrictions on her freedom under Section 810 of the Criminal Code.

"The possibility that Ms. Teale (the name the killer Homolka now goes by) might reoffend one day cannot be completely eliminated," wrote the judge. However, her development over the last 12 years demonstrates, on a balance of probabilities, that this is unlikely to occur. She does not represent a real and imminent danger to commit a personal injury offence."

Karla Leanne Teale is free to associate with criminals, including murderer Jean-Paul Gerbether, her incarcerated lover, and even Bernardo, her ex-husband. She is allowed to care for young children without supervision, travel freely without notifying authorities, and she may contact the families of her victims.

June 2006, Karla lost her third request to change her name to Emily Chiara Tremblay, a that is one of the most common surnames in Quebec, where she was living.

Within two years after her release, the hardware store owner who offered Karla a job sold photos of her to the media. She fled to Montreal, where reporters from an English network found her.

In February 2007, Karla had a baby boy and married her partner, Thierry Bordelais. In December 2007 it was reported they moved to the Antilles and will try to obtain citizenship there.

Bernardo admitted to Toronto police in 2006 that he carried out the knife point assault 20 years ago that Anthony Hanemaayer was serving time for. Hanemaayer was acquitted in 2008.

Kari & Associates
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Copyright Kari Sable 1994-2011

Karla: A Pact with the Devil-- "Well, they say 'never say never' and they're right," Karla wrote in her startling first letter to Stephen Williams. "Never in a million years did I think I would ever write a letter to someone from the media, let alone you who has condemned me so harshly." Thus began one of the most controversial correspondences in Canadian history. Karla picks up where Williams's first book on the case, Invisible Darkness, left her, painting her nails in her cell in solitary confinement in the gothic tower of Kingston's Prison for Women.

Invisible Darkness: The Strange Case of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka The horrifying sex murders committed in southern Ontario by Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka caught the attention of the media and public of Canada like few, if any, cases in that country's history. Readers of either of the two previous books about the case (Deadly Innocence and Lethal Marriage) may be skeptical that another retelling is necessary, but Invisible Darkness benefits from Stephen Williams's prodigious research and his unique perspective on Karla's culpability. Williams had to jump several legal hurdles unique to Canada's "Crown disclosure" protocols, but eventually was able to gain access to more than 70 hours of videotaped police interviews with Karla, interviews with Paul by his defense attorney, and even psychiatrist's notes. Williams uses vivid vignettes to tell the story, and refrains from unnecessarily graphic details about the crimes. As the Winnipeg Free Press writes, "If any readers still believe [Homolka] was a victim of post-traumatic stress, abused into submission by Bernardo, this will put that idea to rest."