|
Stephen
Williams | Stasi | Calgary
Police |
Evidence
Destroying the evidence
is destroying the evidence: nothing more, nothing less
Just before Christmas, 2001,
when no one was paying attention, the Bernardo/Homulka tapes
were destroyed, paving the way for the future capricious destruction
of evidence. Who is protected by this act and who really cares?
The answer to both questions is probably nobody. At least right
now. Except maybe people who market this stuff will now be able
to charge more money. Certainly the value, both in terms of money
and curiosity has greatly increased.
Future historians will have
to speculate about just how demented Bernardo and Homulka really
were. An exercise kind of like speculating on how awful Auschwitz
was. Except to holocaust deniers, we can point to the evidence.
With Homulka and Bernardo,
there are many who will be comforted that their efforts to create
unspeakably sick documents for posterity have been thwarted.
The belief that these two people were an aberration outside the
scope of human behavior is probably wrong. These two were prettier,
more solopsistic, sadistic and extreme than most. But they fall
within a continuum of human experience. There may come a time
where such acts as theirs will truly be unimaginable. We're not
there yet. -- Sheila Steele, Mar. 11, 2002
Web archive
of Bernardo case sparks legal fight
By KIRK MAKIN, Globe
and Mail, Apr. 30, 2003
The families of murder victims
Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy will use every legal means
available to stop an author from posting material from the Paul
Bernardo trial on the Internet, their lawyer said Wednesaday.
"This is exactly what
we have been worrying about for years," Tim Danson said
in an interview. "The families are very upset. You have
no idea of the impact this has on them. The unknown puts them
in a state of fear and panic. Here we are, right in the belly
of the problem we feared."
Mr. Danson said that when he
sees the material that writer Stephen Williams intends to post
on his Web site, he will come after him on the basis of violating
publication bans or through civil action.
The Toronto lawyer said he
also intends to find the name of Mr. Williams's Internet server
and persuade the company that it would be wrong - and perhaps
illegal - to allow Mr. Williams to maintain the Web site.
"This is a really grey
area of the law," Mr. Danson said. "People don't need
to see this stuff. But you put it on the Internet, and it's a
wicked business. There are a lot of very disturbed people who
would enjoy seeing this kind of material on the Internet."
Mr. Williams revealed on Monday
that he intends to post virtually all of his enormous archive
of police interviews, videotapes and crime-scene photographs
on an Internet Web site. He said the public, as well as academics,
have a right to see the intricacies of the investigation and
prosecution.
"There are many, many
pictures that have never been seen," Mr. Williams said in
an interview with The Globe and Mail. "And, of course, there
is 300 hours of videotape - all the myriad police interviews
conducted over a two-year period with Karla [Homolka] and other
stuff. Believe me, it will be controversial."
Mr. Williams said he expects
to post excerpts from videotapes of Mr. Bernardo and Ms. Homolka
having sex, including a shocking video in which Ms. Homolka masquerades
as her murdered sister, Tammy, for the sexual gratification of
Mr. Bernardo.
Most of the material was in
"Crown-disclosure" packages prepared for the defence
at murder proceedings involving Mr. Bernardo and his former wife,
Ms. Homolka.
Mr. Williams, author of Invisible
Darkness and Karla: Pact With the Devil, repeatedly has refused
to reveal who gave the material to him.
Mr. Danson said Wednesaday
that the French and Mahaffy families will press the federal government
to prohibit the unauthorized use of evidence in "disclosure
packages," which Crown prosecutors routinely prepare in
criminal cases.
"Right now, it is all
governed by internal policies," Mr. Danson said. He said
he has warned for years that Crown material could be leaked to
people who might post it in cyberspace.
"There were some people
in officialdom who felt I was overstating things," Mr. Danson
said. "Now, those people are saying: 'Oh.' Well, 'oh' doesn't
work. Certainly, I will use the full force of the law - in other
words, every conceivable legal means - to respond to this."
All copies of videotapes depicting
Mr. Bernardo and Ms. Homolka sexually assaulting and torturing
their victims have been destroyed. The house where their crimes
took place has been torn down and many of the court exhibits
were incinerated in 2001.
However, Mr. Danson said he
has no way of knowing which photographs Mr. Williams has. "He
has stuff that I don't have."
Mr. Danson said he fielded
"tons" of calls Wednesaday from the news media and
officials connected with the case who were taken by surprise
when Mr. Williams announced his Web site.
"People are saying: 'You
must be shocked by this.' I feel like saying: 'Surprised by what?
This is the very thing we have been warning about for years.'"
© 2003 Bell Globemedia
Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Homolka book to be altered
Canadian Press, Mar. 4,
2003
Toronto - Author Stephen Williams
says changes will be made to the second edition of his new book
about sex killer Karla Homolka to address concerns raised by
the families of her victims, but their lawyer says it's "too
late."
"I've decided to remove
one picture and alter another," Mr. Williams said Tuesday.
Last week, the families of
two teenaged girls slain by Ms. Homolka and her former husband,
Paul Bernardo, called for an investigation into pictures published
in Karla: A Pact with the Devil .
Lawyer Tim Danson said he and
the families of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy had believed
some of the photos in the book - in particular, one showing the
concrete blocks in which Mr. Bernardo encased Leslie's body parts
after killing and dismembering her - had been destroyed by authorities
more than a year ago.
Mr. Danson and the families
called on bookstores across Canada to voluntarily remove all
copies of the book from their shelves. Some independent bookstores
and small chains complied.
"I didn't set out to revictimize
the families," Mr. Williams said Tuesday. "If these
photos are going to make people grief-stricken and anguished,
I'll take them out."
Mr. Williams said a photograph
of another teenaged girl known only as Jane Doe - who was drugged
and raped by the couple - will be altered even though "no
one can identify Jane Doe from that photo ... it's 13 years old."
"In the next edition I've
asked the publisher to "black out the entire face,"
he said.
Mr. Williams's publisher said
the planned changes to the book are not an admission that the
author did anything wrong or violated any court orders surrounding
the Bernardo-Homolka legal saga.
"No crime has been committed
here except the crimes Karla committed," said Angel Guerra,
associate publisher for Cantos International.
Mr. Danson said Tuesday that
while he is "very pleased" with Mr. Williams's decision,
it's "far too late" to be making the changes.
"The damage has been done,
the pictures are out there," Mr. Danson said.
Earlier Tuesday, Niagara police
asked Ontario Provincial Police to help with an investigation
into whether the book breaks the law.
The book has been the subject
of a probe by Niagara police since it was first published in
French in December. The province of Ontario asked police to determine
if material in the book breached Ms. Homolka's controversial
plea-bargain agreement with the Crown.
A clause in the 1993 deal prohibited
her from giving "an account directly or indirectly"
with anyone in the media or profiting from a book or movie.
"With the scope of the
initial review expanded, the Niagara Regional Police Service
requested assistance from the Ontario Provincial Police,"
Niagara police said in a news release.
"Members from the OPP
criminal investigation branch have now assumed responsibility
for the matter."
Detective-Superintendent Ross
Bingley, director of the OPP criminal investigation branch, said
the force has yet to begin its investigation.
"The investigation will
be around the publication and was there a breach of any publication
bans or any agreements reached," he said.
Mr. Williams said he has not
heard from the provincial police and hasn't heard from the Niagara
force since last year.
He has vehemently defended
himself against Mr. Danson's suggestion that publishing the photos
could be illegal, saying it is legal to possess and publish the
photographs because they are in the public domain.
Mr. Danson said Cantos has
threatened to sue him.
"They sent me a very threatening
letter," he said. "I will be responding ... they have
their facts twisted and upside down."
Mr. Williams's 456-page book
details Ms. Homolka's plea bargain and how she's been spending
her years behind bars. She is due to be released in July 2005.
Ms. Homolka got a 12-year manslaughter
sentence in exchange for testimony against her ex-husband. Mr.
Bernardo is serving a life sentence.
© 2003 Bell Globemedia
Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Ten years later,
'caustic' Bernardo tapes, other evidence destroyed: lawyer
By JAMES MCCARTEN, December
21, 2001
TORONTO (CP) - Infamous videotapes
depicting sex killer Paul Bernardo's vicious rape and torture
of schoolgirls Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy have been incinerated.
"It was a very emotional moment," said Kristen's mother,
Donna, describing how she felt when she watched the tapes being
destroyed at a facility in the Niagara region the day before.
"I was thinking of Kristen,
and mentally telling her that she didn't have to worry anymore,
that no one would ever see these tapes again."
All known copies of the tapes,
pivotal evidence in Bernardo's 1995 conviction on two counts
of first-degree murder, were destroyed "along with a significant
amount of other materials," lawyer Tim Danson said Friday.
Only a transcript of their
contents remains.
"With the destruction
of this material, Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy are now free
from this horror and their own dignity and respect have been
restored," said Danson, who represents the families.
The process of deciding whether
to destroy the tapes began last fall, after Bernardo's last-ditch
effort to win an appeal of his conviction fell on deaf ears at
the Supreme Court of Canada, said Attorney General David Young.
Young said he became convinced
just this week that the tapes would never again need to be viewed
by a Canadian court of law.
"I considered the consequences
in some considerable detail once again earlier this week and
satisfied myself that there would be no adverse consequences,"
Young said.
"I'm satisfied that the
destruction of these tapes will not interfere with any future
proceedings in front of a court or parole board."
But there are images of Bernardo's
crimes that cannot be destroyed: the ones that have been permanently
seared into the memories of the more than 62 people who watched
the tapes.
One of them, prominent criminal
lawyer Clayton Ruby, had to watch them when his client, fellow
solicitor John Rosen, took over Bernardo's defence in 1994.
Ruby, a hard-boiled legal veteran,
was barely able to muster a response when asked Friday what viewing
the tapes was like.
"I cried," he said.
Ken Murray, Bernardo's original
lawyer, was acquitted last year on a charge of attempting to
obstruct justice after he recovered the tapes from Bernardo's
home and kept them secret for 16 months in 1993 and 1994.
"Caustic," Murray
told court in a quiet voice last year as he testified in his
own defence.
"They were corrosive;
they were horrific."
Ruby, who called the destruction
of the tapes "premature," said he was surprised to
learn they'd been destroyed.
"I've never heard of it
being done like this before," he said. "It's very peculiar."
Crown evidence is normally
stored in government facilities and kept for years in the event
a case has to be revisited, he added.
"It all goes off into
storage in some big government warehouse, and it's stored for
years, because they never know when there will be some need for
it, such as a miscarriage of justice."
In the unlikely event that
someone else should prove to have been involved in the murders,
the Crown "may find themselves in the position that they
cannot prosecute someone, because they chose to destroy the evidence,"
Ruby added.
Danson insisted Friday that
the only proceedings to which the tapes would be relevant would
be a parole hearing for Bernardo, and that transcripts of the
tapes would be sufficient.
But the transcripts couldn't
possibly replicate the sheer power of the real thing, Ruby said.
"One is an antiseptic oral record; the other one is quite
horrendous."
As far as the families were
concerned, the fewer viewings the better. And there was no better
way to limit the viewings than to get rid of the tapes altogether.
"It was such an extreme
violation to the girls every time these were viewed," Donna
French said. "We knew it was necessary for judicial reasons,
but it was still very hard, every time it happened."
For nearly a decade, a storm
of controversy has swirled around the tapes, which police failed
to discover during a comprehensive search of Bernardo's home
after his 1993 arrest.
Murray and his legal team recovered
the tapes from their hiding place in a bathroom light fixture,
becoming the first people aside from Bernardo and ex-wife Karla
Homolka to learn of their existence.
Homolka eventually told police
about the tapes and testified against Bernardo as part of a much-maligned
plea bargain that saw her convicted of two counts of manslaughter
and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Authorities later said they
wouldn't have agreed to the Homolka plea bargain if they'd seen
the tapes.
Aside from the horrors perpetrated
on French and Mahaffy, the tapes also depicted the rape of a
woman identified only as Jane Doe and a similar assault on Homolka's
younger sister, Tammy.
Karla Homolka drugged her sister
with animal tranquilizer to facilitate the attack; shortly afterward,
Tammy choked on her vomit and died. The death was ruled an accident
and neither Bernardo nor Homolka were ever charged.
The original plan was to keep
the destruction private, but the families decided Canadians who
endured the horrors of the trial ought to know the tapes were
gone, Danson added.
"I think the country stands
as one with respect to this," he said.
"Hopefully at this time
of year there will be a lot of people across the country who
will be happy with this news."
In Friday's statement, the
French and Mahaffy families thanked "the people of Canada
for their uncompromising, generous and heartfelt support and
encouragement over many years, without which survival for the
families would have been impossible."
A look at the history of Paul
Bernardo's infamous sex-and-torture videotapes, destroyed Thursday
on the authority of Ontario Attorney General David Young:
February 1993: Paul Bernardo
arrested and charged with 43 sexual offences; retains Ken Murray
as counsel.
May 4-6, 1993: Following Bernardo's
instructions, Murray and his assistants remove six videotapes
from Bernardo's St. Catharines, Ont., home. Bernardo's instructions
forbid Murray from viewing the tapes.
May 14, 1993: Deal signed between
Crown and Karla Homolka compels her to plead guilty to two manslaughter
counts and serve 12 years in prison in exchange for testimony
against Bernardo.
May 1993: Bernardo charged
with two counts of first-degree murder in deaths of Kristen French
and Leslie Mahaffy. Murray views the tapes.
Aug. 27, 1994: Bernardo authorizes
new lawyer John Rosen to view contents of file but makes no mention
of tapes. Bernardo tells Murray not to disclose the tapes to
Rosen.
Sept. 12, 1994: Murray and
Cooper attempt to surrender the tapes to the court. Rosen, worried
about the consequences for Bernardo, intervenes and agrees to
handle the tapes ethically.
Sept. 13-22, 1994: Rosen surrenders
tapes to the Crown.
Sept. 1, 1995: Bernardo convicted
in murders of French and Mahaffy. Tapes play major role at trial.
March 18, 1996: Judicial review
finds deal with Homolka would have been unnecessary had authorities
seen the videos.
Jan. 23, 1997: Murray charged
with obstruction of justice, possessing child pornography and
making obscene material. All but obstruction charges later dropped.
March 27, 2000: Murray's trial
gets underway and lasts for nearly seven weeks.
June 13, 2000: Ontario Superior
Court judge Patrick Gravely acquits Murray on a charge of attempting
to obstructing justice. Tapes are stored in a secret location.
September 2000: Supreme Court
of Canada rejects Bernardo's bid for an appeal, prompting Ontario
government to consider a family request to destroy the tapes.
December 20, 2001: Tapes incinerated.
Paul Bernardo's heinous videotapes
depicting the rapes and torture of his victims have been destroyed.
Some quotes about the tapes:
"Caustic. They were corrosive;
they were horrific." - Ken Murray, Bernardo's original lawyer,
at his obstruction of justice trial in 2000.
--
"There was a look of feral
joy on her face. The tapes displayed, in my opinion, Karla as
an initiator, a person in control. This was someone who is not
afraid of anybody. This is someone who was far more involved
than any of us believed." - Murray, referring to Karla Homolka,
Bernardo's accomplice.
--
"It was an extraordinarily
emotional time. There were many long nights . . . there was not
a moment, then or now, when they're not played over in my mind."
- Murray.
--
"With the tapes, she's
a person fully capable of committing murder against another human
being. He had no choice but to use the tapes. There was no case
without them." - Ken Murray's lawyer, Austin Cooper, at
his trial.
-
"There's no question the
holding of the tapes is what resulted in this sweetheart deal
and what happens to Karla Homolka is a matter of public concern."
- Tim Danson, lawyer for the French and Mahaffy families.
-
"There are very few people
in this country who would want access to those tapes." -
Lawyer Alan Young, who defended an author accused of illegally
viewing the tapes.
-
"Public exposure to the
type of material contained in the subject videotapes promotes
the rape myth ... with the effect of devaluing and dehumanizing
women in general, and Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy in particular."
- The families of French and Mahaffy in their application to
the Supreme Court of Canada to destroy the tapes.
-
"I'm not aware personally
of the contents on the tapes, but we know what it is supposed
to contain. Considering the pros and cons, I am totally in agreement
with (destroying the tapes)." - Marc Labelle, the lawyer
who represents Homolka.
Flaherty mentions destroying
Bernardo videotapes
By JAMES MCCARTEN-- The
Canadian Press, December 13, 2000
TORONTO (CP) -- The time is
fast approaching when sex killer Paul Bernardo's notorious sex-and-torture
videotapes will finally be destroyed, says Ontario's attorney
general.
Jim Flaherty said Wednesday
that the tapes -- which depict Bernardo and ex-wife Karla Homolka
raping and torturing murdered teens Kristen French and Leslie
Mahaffy -- will not be kept forever.
"It's the wish of the
families of the victims, and we want to reflect that wish eventually,
when it's clear the tapes would serve no further purpose to the
administration of justice," Flaherty told The Canadian Press.
"It would be appropriate
at that time . . . to eradicate them."
A decision by Superior Court
Justice Patrick Gravely in 1996 cleared the way for the Crown
to destroy the tapes, but only once they were no longer needed,
Flaherty said.
"His order is that
the tapes can only be destroyed once they are no longer needed
for the administration of justice," he said.
"He has indicated
that the issue is the need for the tapes . . . and that's certainly
something that the Crown is responsible for."
The tapes were central to three
outstanding legal matters which ended this year: Bernardo's appeal
of his 1995 conviction, a case against his former lawyer Ken
Murray and charges of breaching a court order brought against
Toronto author Stephen Williams.
Bernardo, who insists he was
unjustly convicted on two counts of first-degree murder, saw
his bid for a new trial thwarted by the Ontario Court of Appeal
in the spring and the Supreme Court of Canada in September.
Murray was acquitted in June
on a charge of attempting to obstruct justice after he concealed
the tapes for more than a year back in 1993, after he took on
Bernardo as a client.
And in November, charges against
Williams -- who wrote a book about the case and was accused of
watching the tapes in defiance of a court order -- were dropped
altogether.
The Crown abandoned its prosecution
of Williams for fear the graphic tapes would have to be played
in open court.
Tim Danson, the lawyer who
represents the French and Mahaffy families, says he believes
it's time to open the debate about whether the tapes can be destroyed.
But he warned that there may
be legal ramifications if Bernardo ever seeks early parole or
statutory release.
"My opinion at this moment
is that they will probably be needed for the administration of
justice as long as Paul Bernardo is alive," Danson said
Wednesday.
"It's now timely to have
this discussion, and I want to reflect on it carefully because
I want to consider the kinds of situations that may arise in
the future."
It was Danson who convinced
Gravely to issue the order in 1996 in an effort to ensure the
tapes would not forever remain in evidence.
The contents of the tapes have
also been documented in transcripts that detail every single
frame, he noted.
It was before they learned
about the tapes in 1994 that the Crown offered Homolka a 12-year
prison sentence on two counts of manslaughter in exchange for
testimony against Bernardo.
By all accounts, the tapes
suggest Homolka was a gleeful and willing participant in the
attacks, not a battered victim of a brutal, psychotic husband
as she portrayed herself in court.
Flaherty said he met "a
long time ago" with the French and Mahaffy families to discuss
the possibility of destroying the tapes, something they wholeheartedly
support, he said.
But with pending civil litigation
by the families still outstanding, and the possibility of Bernardo
launching a bid for early parole in 2008, the province wants
to "go slow," he added.
"We'll consult with the
families, the police, officials in my ministry, and any decision
will certainly reflect the wishes of the families," Flaherty
said.
"I think it's fair to
say eventually, in the not-too-distant future, the decision could
be taken to eradicate the tapes."
Bernardo has been a hot topic
in the Ontario legislature in recent days amid reports that a
Toronto production company is planning a film version of the
Bernardo saga.
Premier Mike Harris promised
Wednesday that the government would not co-operate with the project.
"No government buildings
will be used for any film that has anything to do with Paul Bernardo,"
Harris said during question period.
"There will not be any
co-operation from this government, because all members of the
legislature have indicated our abhorrence with this crime and
any profiting of this crime by way of a movie."
Bernardo lawyer cleared
By JAMES MCCARTEN -- Canadian
Press, Wednesday, November 29, 2000
TORONTO (CP) -- The governing
body for lawyers in Ontario abandoned efforts Wednesday to censure
the man who first represented sex killer Paul Bernardo.
The Law Society of Upper Canada
dropped a professional misconduct charge against lawyer Ken Murray,
all but ending a legal tumult that swirled for seven years around
Bernardo's heinous sex-and-torture videotapes.
Instead, the society said it
plans to draft new rules to govern how its members should handle
incriminating evidence that might be beneficial to both sides.
"That's the most difficult
decision we'll have to make," said Gavin MacKenzie, chairman
of the society's professional regulation committee.
Murray was acquitted in June
of criminal charges laid after he concealed his client's videotapes
for 17 months, beginning in the spring of 1993.
The infamous tapes depicted
Bernardo and ex-wife Karla Homolka raping and torturing teens
Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French, as well as Homolka's sister
Tammy.
During a 27-day trial in St.
Catharines, Ont. last spring, Murray said he concealed the tapes
because they were critical to Bernardo's defence strategy.
Murray believed they showed
Homolka's complicity in the crimes, shattering her self-proclaimed
image as a battered wife forced to comply with the sexual predilections
of her psychotic husband.
He insisted he had planned
to confront Homolka with the tapes on the stand in order to undermine
her credibility as a Crown witness.
For his part, Murray said Wednesday
he's glad new rules to help guide lawyers are in the works.
"If this ever comes up
in the future, other lawyers won't have the same difficulties
wallowing through an unknown field," he said.
"It's unfortunate that
it took as long as it did, but from here I expect that it can
move on."
Members of the committee will
include prominent criminal lawyer Clayton Ruby and Alan Gold,
head of the Criminal Lawyers Association.
"We're going to come up
with guidelines that are clear enough that even the dumbest lawyer
on Earth will be able to figure out that you can't do this,"
Ruby said Wednesday.
"We'll look at that."
Bernardo was convicted of two
counts of first-degree murder in the French and Mahaffy deaths
and was sentenced to life in prison.
Homolka was given a 12-year
sentence on two counts of manslaughter in exchange for her testimony
against her ex-husband.
That deal was struck before
authorities became aware there was videotaped evidence against
the notorious couple.
A judicial review in 1996,
a year after Bernardo's conviction, found that Homolka's deal
wouldn't have been necessary had authorities known about the
tapes.
Homolka could be released from
prison as early as next year.
The decision will help Murray
find closure, said his lawyer, Mark Sandler.
"He's been practicing
criminal law for many years . . .and didn't have a blemish on
his character or reputation," Sandler said.
"All of a sudden, he was
in the public eye, he was vilified, he was demonized."
Murray was ultimately forced
to withdraw from the case in the fall of 1994 and found himself
under investigation by provincial police and the law society.
Meanwhile, the last chapter
in the sordid legal saga of the videotapes is expected to end
Thursday when Crown officials request a stay of charges against
author Stephen Williams.
Williams was charged with breaching
a court order for allegedly viewing the banned tapes and writing
about them in his book Invisible Darkness.
Officials with Ontario's Ministry
of the Attorney General refused to confirm the plan Thursday.
"We won't be commenting
on that until we speak to it in court," said ministry spokesman
Brendan Crawley.
Latest Homolka book in
high demand
By PETER CAMERON, Mon, February
17, 2003
TORONTO (CP) - A book about
schoolgirl killer Karla Homolka is selling briskly in the Niagara
area where Homolka and her husband, Paul Bernardo, committed
their horrific crimes.
The English-language version
of "Karla: A Pact with the Devil" by Stephen Williams
has been selling well since going on sale a few days ago, Tracy
Nesdoly, spokeswoman for the Indigo bookstore chain, said Monday.
At a store in St. Catharines, Ont., Williams' book couldn't be
found on the shelves, customers had to ask for it at the counter.
"The management at that
store decided it was most appropriate not to display it,"
Nesdoly said.
However, that store has sold
out of all its copies, she said. Nesdoly declined to say how
many copies that store had received.
The book, which features a
smiling photo of Homolka holding a wine glass on the front cover,
examines Homolka's 1993 plea-bargain for her part in the sex
slayings of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy.
The book also explores how
she is spending her time while serving a 12-year manslaughter
sentence in a maximum-security prison in Joliette, Que.
Niagara Region police were
investigating Homolka's role in the production of the book to
see if she violated her plea-bargain deal with the Crown, which
banned her from discussing her crimes with the media or benefiting
from the slayings.
Homolka and Bernardo were convicted
in the sex slayings of French, 15, and Mahaffy, 14, which took
place in an upscale St. Catharines, Ont., neighbourhood.
Bernardo was convicted in 1995
and declared a dangerous offender. He's in prison in Kingston,
Ont., without possibility of parole.
Before Crown attorneys knew
there were videotapes portraying Homolka as a willing participant
in the crimes, they struck a deal for a 12-year sentence on two
counts of manslaughter.
In his book, Williams questions
the wisdom of keeping Homolka in prison instead of granting her
parole, for which she was eligible last summer after serving
two-thirds of her sentence.
He argues that had Homolka
been released in 2001, authorities could have controlled her
reintegration through required visits with parole officials and
possibly with an electronic bracelet to trace her whereabouts.
"When 2005 rolls around,
she'll be free as a bird, no strings attached, and absolutely
no one will be able to touch her," Williams said in an interview
last year.
His book does not lack controversy,
but nothing has kicked up as much dust as Williams's 18-month
correspondence with Homolka, much of it quoted in the book.
The French and Mahaffy families'
lawyer, Tim Danson, has suggested Homolka violated the terms
of her plea bargain by communicating with Williams.
Families urge bookstores
to remove book on sex killer Homolka from shelves
NANCY CARR, Canadian
Press, February 28, 2003
TORONTO (CP) - Bookstores across
Canada should remove all copies of a new Karla Homolka book from
their shelves, and anyone who bought a copy should destroy the
graphic photographs inside its covers, says the lawyer for the
families of two schoolgirls who were raped and murdered by Homolka
and Paul Bernardo.
"The Mahaffy and French
families plead, plead with the owners of every bookstore in Canada
and elsewhere to voluntarily remove Mr. Williams's book from
their bookshelves," Tim Danson told a news conference Friday.
Danson said he and the families
had believed some of the photos in the book Karla: A Pact with
the Devil, by Stephen Williams - in particular, one showing the
concrete blocks in which Bernardo encased Leslie Mahaffy's body
parts after killing and dismembering her - had been destroyed
by authorities more than a year ago.
"Now, contrary to our
understanding of the law, Mr. Williams and his publisher have
had the cruel audacity to publish a picture of Leslie's body
parts," Danson said.
"Bookstore owners have
a moral and legal duty to ensure that they are not assisting
in the violation to which we speak today."
Indigo Books and Music Inc.
does not intend to pull the new Homolka book from the shelves,
said Indigo spokeswoman Tracy Nesdoly. Indigo owns 277 Chapters,
Indigo, Coles and SmithBooks stores nationwide. Every store received
at least one copy of the book, which is selling for $24.95.
"In Quebec, the book has
been selling for several months now," Nesdoly said.
"There was no indication
from the federal government or the police or anybody that there
was something wrong, and the distributor and publisher have reassured
me they have sought legal advice as well. As far as we know,
we're not breaking any laws whatsoever."
The manager at one Chapters
store in St. Catharines, the hometown of Kristen French, decided
not to restock the book after selling out of it. Local residents,
however, can buy the book online or at other nearby Indigo stores.
One Toronto bookstore chain
heeded the families' pleas Friday, yanking the books after 10
days on the shelves.
"Out of respect toward
the families, I have decided to withdraw the title from sale,"
said Frans Donker, owner of the five Book City stores.
"This is the first time
in my 27 years of book retail I have decided to remove a title
from sale."
Donker said he bought "very,
very few" copies of the book - three for each store - and
has sold a total of three since the book was published.
"I'm a parent. I can understand
what this family has gone through over the last 10 or so years,
and now to suddenly see pictures they thought had been destroyed
must be very hurtful and very painful."
Several independent stores
decided not to carry the book even before it was published.
"If someone asks me for
it, I'll order it," said Cathy Legate, owner of Vancouver's
well-known Duthie's Books. "I wouldn't go out of my way
to carry it."
Danson said Mahaffy's mother,
Debbie, was too distraught to attend the news conference Friday,
although Danson read a statement from her. Debbie's husband,
Dan, was present, but did not speak.
"In a flash, all of Debbie
and Dan's healing and progress has vanished . . . Once
again Leslie Mahaffy's memory and dignity has been egregiously
violated."
Danson reiterated his call
for a police investigation into how Williams obtained and published
the crime photos. He said their publication violates various
court orders surrounding the Bernardo-Homolka legal saga.
A composed Donna French, Kristen's
mother, told the news conference that the latest developments
have caused further pain to her family.
"Knowing that there are
more pictures out there - we are again on that emotional rollercoaster
ride," she said.
Williams has vehemently defended
himself against Danson's accusations, saying it is legal to possess
and publish the photographs because they are in the public domain.
"If you want to take one
picture in isolation of everything else that's in the book, of
course that picture could appear to be grotesque and sensational,"
Williams said Friday from his home in Mount Forest, Ont.
"But the pictures in the
book . . . provide a pictorial narrative of Karla Homolka's life
and they reinforce one of the central themes of the book, and
that theme is the dichotomy between how Karla Homolka appears,
how she speaks, her level of intelligence, her soft-spokenness,
her literacy, her social skills . . . and the atrocity of her
deeds."
But Danson said their publication
breaches previous court orders, especially a picture that shows
one of Homolka and Bernardo's young rape victims with a small
bar over her eyes but the rest of her face plainly visible. A
publication ban protects the victim's identity.
"Jane Doe is clearly identified
in this picture and the use of a black mark through her eyes"
does not conceal her identity, he said.
Danson also accused Williams
of libelling Vince Bevan, now chief of the Ottawa police force,
who was in charge of the Niagara Regional police force when French
and Mahaffy were murdered.
"I was stunned into numbness,
as were the families, as I read in Mr. Williams's book the numerous
and malicious attacks on Chief Bevan. (Bevan) is a man of principle
and integrity."
Karla: A Pact with the Devil,
published in French in the fall and in English last week, is
Williams's second book on the Bernardo-Homolka case. He was charged
and acquitted of violating court orders while writing his first
book.
At the request of the province
of Ontario, Niagara police began investigating the newly published
book as soon as it was available in French to determine if material
in it breached Homolka's plea-bargain agreement. A spokesman
for Ontario Attorney General Norm Sterling said his ministry
is not involved in the investigation for now.
Williams's 456-page book details
the 1993 deal and how Homolka has been spending her years behind
bars. She is due to be released in July 2005.
Homolka got a 12-year manslaughter
sentence in exchange for testimony against her ex-husband.
Bernardo is serving a life
sentence.
Statements delivered by Donna French,
mother of rape and murder victim Kristen French, and by lawyer
Tim Danson on behalf of Debbie and Dan Mahaffy, parents of victim
Leslie Mahaffy, at news conference to recall copies of Karla:
A Pact with the Devil, by Stephen Williams:
"It is only since the
videotapes, along with other evidence, have been destroyed that
we have finally been able to pull our lives together again. Now,
knowing that there are more pictures out there we are again on
that emotional rollercoaster ride." - Donna French
-
"To those who do not know
this already, we would like to say that during the time that
Kristen was missing, after she was found and during the trial,
the Green Ribbon Task Force, and especially Vince Bevan, was
our life line. He always showed compassion and sensitivity toward
our family yet at the same time was always professional. Vince
went to great lengths to ensure that we were kept informed and
he made himself available to us day or night." - Donna French
-
"It is cruelty in the
extreme that subsequent to that court order Williams has published
a copy of one of the police photos of Leslie in death, and in
doing so he has exhumed her once again, exposed her again and
has treated her and her family with disdain and disrespect."
- Debbie and Dan Mahaffy.
-
"When we looked upon the
photo of Leslie in Williams's book we could see just as clearly
the contents of that cement block and every other cement block
shown and even the ones that are not in this photo. Those terrifying
images and sounds of her abduction, torture, death and disposal,
which we had carefully filed safely away, came flooding back
and have possessed us once again." - Debbie and Dan Mahaffy.
-
"We believe that it is
important at this time that we publicly thank Vince Bevan and
every officer of the Niagara and Halton Regional Police Force
and every officer on the Green Ribbon Task Force. It was our
privilege to observe, learn and understand what exceptional police
work was done as they undertook and successfully completed their
investigation into the deaths of Leslie and Kristen." -
Debbie and Dan Mahaffy.
-
"Williams's misrepresentations,
distortions and omissions of facts, misconceptions, misinformation
and his ad nauseum accusations and insinuations with respect
to Vince Bevan personally and the police community in general
are but more examples of Williams's incredulous untruthfulness."
- Debbie and Dan Mahaffy.
© Copyright 2003 The
Canadian Press
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
