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BELLEVILLE, Ontario -- The commander of Canada's largest air force base stalked, repeatedly raped and killed two women as they pleaded for their lives, prosecutors said Tuesday at the colonel's sentencing hearing.

TORONTO—As Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip waved to the crowd after a 2005 visit, a tall, fit officer stood next to them. He saluted the royal couple, and flew them home to Britain. Now that same elite Canadian pilot, Colonel Russell Williams, stands charged with the murder of two women, the sexual assault of two others and 82 break-ins, during which he often stole women's panties.

As Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip waved to the crowd after a 2005 visit, a tall, fit officer stood next to them. He saluted the royal couple, and flew them home to Britain. Now that same elite Canadian pilot, Colonel Russell Williams, stands charged with the murder of two women, the sexual assault of two others and 82 break-ins, during which he often stole women's panties. The charges have shocked a country, hurt soldiers' morale and prompted fears that the commander of Canada's most high-profile military base and the man who once flew Canadian prime ministers could be a...

Accused killer Col. Russell Williams and notorious serial killer Paul Bernardo both attended the University of Toronto Scarborough campus. They both studied economics at the Military Trail campus during the mid-1980s. They graduated together in 1987, Williams, 46, with a politics and economics degree, Bernardo, 45, with a commerce and economics degree. Their families both lived along the Scarborough bluffs. Now police sources tell the Toronto Sun the two were college “pals” who “partied” together and that their relationship is the subject of intense scrutiny by the joint forces team probing the murders of Cpl. Marie-France Comeau and Jessica Lloyd.

It was inevitable, you have to figure, that Col. Russell Williams’ stunning arrest on charges of murder and rape quickly would lead to dark speculation about the fate of the Canadian Forces. Will Canadians turn against the CF now that one of their senior leaders has been unmasked, allegedly, as a monster? Will all the hard restorative work done in the years since the Somalia debacle be for naught? This is, as we say in the news biz, a crock. Canadians are not imbeciles. Come to think of it, some of us are rather clever and fair-minded. Some of us...

BELLEVILLE, Ont. — Ontario police have charged the senior officer at CFB Trenton in south-eastern Ontario with first-degree murder in the deaths of Jessica Lloyd and a second Ontario woman, Marie France Comeau. Wing commander Col. Russell Williams, 46, was arrested Sunday and is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Lloyd, 27. She was reported missing Jan. 29, after she didn't show up for work. Lloyd last communicated with a family friend on Jan. 28 at 10:36 p.m. through text messaging. Helicopter and ground searches near her Belleville home, about 180 kilometres northeast of Toronto, turned up nothing....

Col. Russell Williams, a high-ranking Canadian military commander who has met with senior Canadian politicians and been quoted extensively about the war in Afghanistan and the earthquake in Haiti, is facing first-degree murder charges in the deaths of two women from eastern Ontario. Williams, of Tweed, Ont., and the 8 Wing Commander of Canadian Forces Base Trenton, was arrested Sunday in Ottawa and has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Jessica Lloyd, 27, and Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, 38. In addition to the murder charges, Williams faces counts of forcible confinement, breaking and entering, and sexual assault in...

Col. Russell Williams was an up-and-coming air force officer who seemed to be on the right track for promotion to the senior ranks of the Canadian Forces. He was a graduate of the military's command and staff course and had recently completed French training in Gatineau before being given command of 8 Wing at Canadian Forces Base Trenton, Ont. In January, Williams proudly showed Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Chief of the Defence Staff General Walter Natynczyk around Trenton as military crews readied aircraft for the Haiti relief mission. But on Sunday, Williams, 46, was arrested in Ottawa and charged...