PING!
Posted on 06/03/2005 8:55:09 AM PDT by GMMAC
Ont. Crown tells court of Homolka's prison affair with convicted murderer
Graeme Hamilton
National Post
June 3, 2005
JOLIETTE, Que. - Efforts by Karla Homolka's lawyer to present her client as a remorseful, model inmate were dealt a blow yesterday when a court heard details of a sexual relationship Ms. Homolka carried on with a man imprisoned for strangling his girlfriend.
Daniel Cournoyer, an official at the Joliette Institution where Homolka is serving a 12-year sentence for her role in the sex killings of two Ontario schoolgirls, had testified that Homolka has an unblemished disciplinary record since being moved to Joliette in 1997.
But James Ramsay, representing the Attorney-General of Ontario in its attempt to impose conditions on Homolka following the end of her sentence on July 5, asked whether Mr. Cournoyer was aware of a sexual relationship between her and Jean-Paul Gerbet.
"Underwear were found here and there," Mr. Ramsay said of the encounter between the two inmates. "A nude photo of Mr. Gerbet was found in her cell," he added. Mr. Cournoyer said he was unaware of those details.
In refusing Homolka an early release last December, the National Parole Board referred to her correspondence with an inmate serving a lengthy sentence for "offences related to conjugal violence."
Yesterday was the first time Gerbet was publicly identified as Homolka's lover. The two met while they were both incarcerated in Ste-Anne-des-Plaines, north of Montreal. A French citizen, he is serving a life sentence for the 1998 second-degree murder of his ex-girlfriend, Cathy Carretta, 23. He is up for parole in 2008.
Ontario and Quebec prosecutors have banded together to ask Quebec Court to ensure Homolka's movements are monitored following her release. Invoking a rarely used section of the Criminal Code, they are arguing that she is likely to commit a serious personal injury after her release. They did not specify yesterday what conditions they are seeking.
The hearing was the first time Homolka, 35, has been seen in public since testifying at the murder trial of her ex-husband Paul Bernardo, and she attracted a media horde.
Her presence was signalled by the rattling of chains binding her feet as she waited in a holding area for Judge Jean Beaulieu to enter. After taking her seat in the prisoner's box and having handcuffs removed, she sat impassively for most of the hearing.
Niagara Regional Police Constable Brian Noble was the only witness for the Crown and he began by reciting the details of the kidnappings, sexual torture and killings of Leslie Mahaffy, 14, and Kristen French, 15.
He stressed Homolka's role in the crimes, noting she lured Kristen to Bernardo's car to allow her kidnapping and at one point during the girl's captivity was left alone guarding her.
The details of these crimes did not appear to move Homolka, but when Const. Noble moved on to the death of her younger sister, Tammy, she bowed her head and dabbed her eyes with a tissue.
Tammy Homolka was 15 when her older sister agreed to offer her as a sexual present to Bernardo. She obtained tranquilizers to drug the victim and participated with Bernardo in a sexual assault on her unconscious sister in the Homolka family home. Tammy started to vomit and suffocated.
Const. Noble told Judge Beaulieu that people in Ontario are still angry at Homolka.
"She is well known all over Ontario. Everybody is talking about her and saying her sentence is too lenient," he said. "They're talking about the deal with the devil."
Const. Noble noted the parole board had refused her release six times and quoted from what the court heard was an unprecedented number of psychiatric and psychological evaluations conducted on Homolka.
He referred to reports that found she had narcissistic traits and displayed a lack of empathy for her victims. One report disputed her claim she suffered from battered-wife syndrome and was unable to escape Bernardo's clutches.
Referring to her by the surname Teale, which she and Bernardo adopted before their arrests, the report cited "at least two incidents when Teale was able to stand up to Bernardo." In one instance that Homolka related to her psychiatrist, Bernardo was beating their pet rottweiler, Buddy. "I had to grab him and tell him, 'Stop, you're going to kill him like you killed the girls,' '' she reportedly said. The other incident also involved Buddy, when Bernardo told her to have sex with the dog. "I told him he would have to kill me first," Homolka told the psychiatrist.
Sylvie Bordelais, Homolka's lawyer, introduced reports that concluded Homolka was "manipulated, controlled and battered" by Bernardo. She accused Const. Noble of focusing exclusively on negative assessments and ignoring any that cast Homolka in a more positive light.
One report cited by Ms. Bordelais compared Homolka to a concentration camp prisoner. Another said, "The likelihood of her finding a second Paul Bernardo is extremely low."
It is the fear of Homolka hooking up with another sadist like Bernardo that worries many observers of the case and explains why her relationship with Gerbet troubles authorities. Dr. Louis Morrisette, a psychiatrist who assessed Homolka and is set to testify today, has said he is not troubled by the relationship with Gerbet because Gerbet will be deported to France upon his release.
Ms. Bordelais began by asking Judge Beaulieu to throw out the Crown's request under Section 810 of the Criminal Code, saying the Crown was reneging on Homolka's plea bargain. The judge refused the request, saying he was in no way bound by the plea bargain.
The hearing is expected to conclude today. Mr. Ramsay told the court that he has been unable to find an expert witness to counter the testimony by Dr. Morrisette.
© National Post 2005
... ADDITIONAL ARTICLE ...
A little older, but still in command Homolka dabs eyes as court hears facts about sister's killing
Tom Blackwell
National Post
June 3, 2005
JOLIETTE, Que. - At a hearing where Karla Homolka's remorse or total lack thereof -- is a hotly debated issue, the gesture was simple but dramatic.
Her head bowing ever lower at a court hearing here yesterday, Homolka began repeatedly dabbing her eyes with a Kleenex and didn't stop until several moments later. The episode of apparent sorrow -- punctuating a day in which she betrayed little emotion of any kind -- was prompted by a witness's description of how she and Paul Bernardo, her ex-husband, raped and inadvertently killed her sister, Tammy.
One skeptical spectator actually scanned Homolka's face with opera glasses for evidence of real tears. The verdict among onlookers was divided.
It was Homolka's first appearance in public since she testified at Bernardo's trial almost exactly a decade ago, and the scrutiny by an army of media and curious onlookers was intense.
Clad in a tan-coloured suit and black turtleneck, the 35-year-old looked older but still fit, attractive and in command of herself.
Homolka entered the courtroom in leg irons and handcuffs, the hardware jangling loudly as she moved.
The handcuffs were taken off soon after she arrived, but the leg irons stayed on.
"She showed what I would call contrived emotion," said Mr. Danson, who looked on from a front-row seat.
"As soon as those facts [about the crimes] were over, it was like snapping your fingers. She was right back without a scintilla of emotion.... That has a lot of the hallmarks of psychopathy," Mr. Danson said.
He also complained about Homolka's surprising choice to have the entire hearing in French, though her native language is English and her crimes took place in English-speaking Ontario communities. She has reportedly become fluent after years serving time with mostly francophone inmates at Joliette Institution here and elsewhere in Quebec.
But Mr. Danson called the language decision another example of her attempts to manipulate the system.
Homolka will leave prison next month after serving the entire 12-year manslaughter sentence she received for her part in the Kristen and Leslie killings and the drug-induced choking death of Tammy.
Close to 100 members of the media, most of them from Ontario, descended on the courthouse in this small, leafy city 50 kilometres northeast of Montreal for a hearing at which prosecutors are asking for restrictions on her freedom. The small tent city of makeshift studios outside the courthouse lent an oddly festive air to the grim proceedings.
The news media dwarfed a contingent of about 40 members of the public who ventured out for a look at an offender who in Quebec has not yet gained the same level of notoriety as she has elsewhere.
"To look at Karla Homolka is strange, because she is a murderer," said a slightly awe-struck Felix Fontaine, 12, who came by to watch on a lunch break from his private boys school.
"I am very interested to see what happens," added a friend enthusiastically.
Homolka spent most of the hearing with her impassive gaze fixed on the lawyers and witnesses, clearly engaged in the often dry proceedings. Twice she motioned for her lawyer, Sylvie Bordelais, to come over for a consultation, shuffling awkwardly in her leg irons to the edge of the prisoner's box.
She more than once smiled and exchanged words with the two guards who flanked her in the box.
Many spectators just came for a glimpse of the woman now beginning to captivate the Quebec media.
"Twelve years ago when it happened, I didn't pay much attention," said Len Campeau, 31, who made the hour-long trek from Montreal .
"[But today] I was hoping to get in and actually look at her face. I've never heard anything positive about the woman. I wanted to look at her face. I'm curious."
Francoise Waier, a Joliette resident, had other reasons for showing up at the courthouse. When Bernardo went on a rampage of serial rapes through the Toronto suburb of Scarborough in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and later when Kristen and Leslie went missing, Ms. Waier lived in nearby Mississauga. She actually did her bit to help police, reporting sightings of the beige Camaro police initially thought was involved in Kristen's kidnapping.
"I wanted to see her face," she said. "To see if the judge will be able to really, really decide, truly and sincerely, that she is a danger."
© National Post 2005
Source for this additional article
Canada has co-ed prisons?
Efforts by Karla Homolka's lawyer to present her client as a remorseful, model inmate were dealt a blow yesterday when a court heard details of a sexual relationship Ms. Homolka carried on with a man imprisoned for strangling his girlfriend.
And this while both were in prison?? Seems as though she's already found her next partner in crime and is setting up for round 2. Even if her husband was the evil one who lured her into his sick, twisted world, it appears she is a quick study and got off with a sweetheart deal.
Too true. If she gets out someone else is going to die...maybe more than one.
The exploits of this woman and her ex-husband makes a person shudder especially when she's seeking parole.
She seems to be gearing up, with the affair. It doesn't seem she's 'changed' or the 'innocent' victim of her husbands battery at all. I hope Canada reconsiders her situation.
Sex discrimination is unconstitutional. In Canada, felons, while in jail, still have the right to vote, too!
Leave em alone and maybe we'll get lucky and he'll strangle her
It worked once for him! We don't know a lot about him and he doesn't seem to bright, but she seems a little smarter, the premeditation and all with her cases. Since Canada chose to lighten her sentence, this would be another solution. She should never be free.
You really need to watch that Richard Speck video one day.
That's kooky. Even in a country as touchy-feely left as New Zealand, anyone serving for a long than three year prison term is disqualified to vote.
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