MONTREAL – Convicted killer Jean-Paul Gerbet went before the Parole Board of Canada Tuesday to try to win his freedom after serving 13 years for killing 23-year-old Laval woman Cathy Carretta in 1998.
But, as was the case at Gerbet’s two previous parole hearings, another woman’s name kept coming up – Karla Homolka’s.
Gerbet, a French national, gained notoriety after having a jailhouse relationship with Homolka while they were inmates at the Ste. Anne des Plaines institution.
Gerbet met Homolka while volunteering at the prison library. Homolka was in a maximum-security section of the institution for female inmates, serving a 12-year sentence for helping ex-husband Paul Bernardo in the sex slayings of two Ontario teenagers and the death of her younger sister.
At the library, Gerbet and Homolka exchanged underwear, photos and kisses. Gerbet told the parole board Tuesday that Homolka initiated the relationship and he was charmed by the blond inmate.
“She put me on a pedestal,” he told the two-member panel in Laval. “The way she looked at me and talked to me, I knew she was interested in me. She started to leave me letters in books.”
The relationship ended after it was revealed in the media as authorities were attempting to attach conditions to Homolka’s release in 2005. One of the conditions is that she may not contact Gerbet.
Gerbet is serving a life sentence after being found guilty of second-degree murder in 1999 killing of Carretta. He has admitted that he killed Carretta after she told him she no longer wanted to see him.
Gerbet told the parole board Tuesday that he blamed Carretta for his failings in life, and that he was taking drugs and drinking heavily in the days before the killing.
His said his narcissistic personality would not allow him to accept responsibility for his failed relationships with women and his failure to build a life for himself.
After strangling Carretta in her father’s home, he dumped her body in a trunk and drove it to her family’s chalet.
If he is released on parole, Gerbet said he knows he must continue to be in touch with his feelings, especially regarding any future relationships with women.
“I have to work on myself until the end,” he said.
Gerbet said he has suffered from low self-esteem and feelings of inadequacy most of his life.
“I didn’t like myself,” he said. “I have worked hard to try not to be the guy I was. I have worked hard to change.”
Gerbet has twice been turned down for parole, in 2008 and 2009, partly because of his bizarre relationship with Homolka and because the board was worried that he may reoffend.
His parole officer recommended Tuesday that he be granted full parole this time, saying he is more self-aware and “less rigid.”
Psychologists and other professionals who have dealt with Gerbet said his chances of reoffending are minimal.
Carretta’s parents and sister read statements asking that Gerbet be kept behind bars. They contend he remains a danger to women.
“Cathy told me that, one day, she wanted to get married in our garden,” said her mother, Daniele Urgon. “Instead, I had to buy a coffin and a grave site.”
Gerbet will be deported from Canada upon his release from prison. He said he plans to live with his parents in France and work at a farm owned by a family friend.
The panel took the case under advisement, saying the decision was too important to make a hasty ruling.
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