TORONTO – The release of a taped police interview with Paul Bernardo shows the notorious convicted killer fidgeting, giving rambling responses and focusing on why his ex-wife Karla Homolka wasn’t forced to take a lie-detector test.
Bernardo agreed to the interview by police last year and knew he would be asked if he had anything to do with the June 1990 disappearance of Elizabeth Bain.
Bernardo has admitted in recent years to several more sexual assaults, in addition to the 11 he was convicted of at his dangerous offender hearing in 1995. He told police in 2006 that he was admitting to the crimes in the hope of someday, being released on parole.
During the interview by Toronto police detectives Brad Wheeler and Darlene Coulis, Bernardo is asked if he killed Bain.
“That is a loaded question. I mean, are we going to go back and go through the time sequence of what happened in my life? I mean, I could just give a yes or no answer,” said Bernardo in a rambling response.
He later added: “Anyways, the answer to that is no.”
He appeared obsessed with a Toronto-area police force suggesting he lied about having committed further sexual assaults.
“I made mistakes 17 years ago. That’s OK. Fine, I did. But now we’re talking about today and you’re not going to roll forward that I’m some psychopathic liar sitting in jail, claiming other people’s responsibility for other crimes,” said Bernardo.
As well, he frequently asked why his ex-wife Karla Homolka was never subjected to a lie-detector test.
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Bernardo said he can’t understand why then-Niagara Regional police Insp. Vince Bevan, who led the investigation into the slayings of Ontario teenagers Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy, didn’t use a polygraph to test Homolka’s story.
Homolka, who was married to Bernardo at the time of the murders, testified against her husband in return for a 12-year prison term for her role in the crimes. She made that deal before it was discovered she had a role in the death and sexual assault of her younger sister, Tammy, as well as the sexual assault of a teen known as Jane Doe.
Homolka was released from prison in July, 2005 after serving her full sentence. She has since given birth to a baby boy and has reportedly moved to the Caribbean.
“Did you guys go down there to get a polygraph to see if she (Homolka) was telling the truth?” Bernardo said in the interview.
“Why didn’t Bevan do it in the first place? Why would he make a deal with someone and not give them a polygraph? It’s incomprehensible to me.”
The interview was part of the police investigation in the retrial of Robert Baltovich, who was convicted in 1992 of killing Bain. A new trial was ordered in 2004 by the Ontario Court of Appeal.
Baltovich was acquitted in April when, on the eve of opening arguments, the Crown announced it was calling no evidence. A portion of the interview was played in court last year, during pretrial arguments.
His lawyers intended to argue that Bernardo was a legitimate suspect in Bain’s disappearance.
Joanne McLean, a lawyer for Baltovich, said Tuesday that releasing a transcript of the interview was not sufficient for the public to make an informed assessment of Bernardo’s answers to the police questions. “His responses are anything but candid or upfront,” said McLean.
A judge ruled the tape could be released to the media – one of the first times that a Canadian judge has directly addressed the right of the public to access court exhibits that may be distributed primarily on the Internet.
Ontario Superior Court Justice David McCombs ruled against the Crown and its request that there be restrictions placed on the media’s ability to post the full 31-minute interview online.
“The Internet is now an established extension of responsible media outlets’ reporting,” the judge noted Friday, in granting the media access to the June 7, 2007, prison interview with Bernardo that was conducted by two Toronto police detectives.
McCombs accepted the argument that there was value in posting the full interview on media websites, so the public can assess it, unfiltered by media commentary or editing.
“The time pressures of modern television news reporting dictate that usually only a snippet of video will find its way into regular news programming,” observed the judge.
While the Supreme Court of Canada has stated for more than 25 years that there is a presumption in favour of public access to court exhibits, many lower courts have resisted releasing video exhibits to the media.
The Internet aspect of the Bernardo ruling could set a precedent, said Iain MacKinnon, the lawyer who acted for the media. McCombs has recognized that the Internet “is a legitimate medium to communicate to the public about the justice system,” said MacKinnon.
Among the restrictions requested by the Crown were that television outlets only broadcast excerpts – within news reports – and news reports be posted, but only for a limited time.
The judge rejected those arguments, saying “open justice and public scrutiny are core values in our justice system. Unless the press has access to court information and exhibits, they are unable to provide that information to the public.”
With files from the Ottawa Citizen
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