No new Bernardo charges
Some victims don't want to co-operate: Police
Did investigators miss a pattern of sex attacks?
The Toronto Star, NICK PRON, STAFF REPORTER, Feb. 22, 2006
Toronto police have decided not to lay fresh charges against convicted sex killer Paul Bernardo following recent jailhouse confessions that he sexually assaulted at least 10 more women.
Deputy Chief Tony Warr said in a news release yesterday that police first learned of Bernardo's claims more than four months ago, but after putting together a team to pore over the old cases it was decided not to launch a new investigation.
Paul Bernardo confessed four months ago to at least 10 other sexual assaults
Warr said police were aware at the time of "a number" of the alleged assaults, which began in 1986. But he added that some of the victims "made it very clear" they didn't want to help investigators catch the culprit. Warr, who declined interviews, added that some assaults apparently were never reported to police.
"I am very mindful that, whenever this issue is raised, the effect on the victims is that they feel they are being victimized once again," Warr said. "I do not intend to do any interviews."
Bernardo's confessions from Kingston Penitentiary, and Warr's subsequent comments about the alleged assaults, raise a number of questions:
Did investigators at the time miss a pattern of assaults that began near Bernardo's Scarborough home on Sir Raymond Dr. in 1986, almost a year before the public was warned to be on the lookout for a man police dubbed the Scarborough Rapist?
Had police followed through on the Guildwood assaults, that information might have helped detectives in their questioning of Bernardo in November 1990. He had been asked to come in for an interview because he looked like the sketch of the Scarborough Rapist.
But there was no further investigation at the time into Bernardo, who then moved to St. Catharines to live with his then-wife Karla Homolka at her parents' house.
His DNA sample languished on a shelf, to be checked only after Homolka left him and confessed their crimes to police.
Had investigators followed up on those earlier assault cases, could that information have later helped them catch Bernardo before his rampage escalated into the murders of Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French?
Bernardo kidnapped and killed Mahaffy, 14, in June 1991, and French, 15, in April 1992.
If Bernardo is to be believed, he started attacking women on his street as a 21-year-old in March 1986, committing six assaults that year, three of them close to home in Guildwood Village.
According to information obtained by the Star, one woman was attacked while she sat on the porch of her house in that neighbourhood, south of Kingston Rd.
A second woman was assaulted while walking home one evening on Guildwood Parkway.
A year later, in late 1987, police began warning the public of a predator they dubbed the Scarborough Rapist, who was attacking women as they got off buses late at night.
By then, Bernardo had branched out from his home territory and was prowling for victims to the north, on Ellesmere Rd., Sheppard Ave. E. and Port Union Rd.
But there was no mention by police at the time that the Scarborough Rapist's attacks pre-dated 1987, the time Bernardo said he began his assaults.
Bernardo's confessions were relayed through his lawyer, Tony Bryant, who said Bernardo wanted to "clear up some issues" in his case.
Lawyer Tim Danson, who has represented the French and Mahaffy families for the past decade, scoffs at the notion Bernardo is trying to unburden his conscience of unreported crimes.
"He's a psychopath, and once a psychopath, always a psychopath. He's probably getting some perverted thrill going through all this celebrity status," said Danson about all the media attention given Bernardo by his recent disclosures.
"He likes the attention because his life in jail is boring. Doing something like this is his way to break up the monotony of what is and will be his day-to-day life behind bars."
Meanwhile, an American website is offering for sale one of Bernardo's love letters to Homolka. The asking price for the four-page, handwritten letter is $568. Late last night it had attracted several bids.
The site is being monitored by a victims' rights group set up by the mayor of Houston to ensure that any money from the sale of memorabilia from Bernardo, child killer Clifford Olson and other serial murderers does not go back to the killers, or to agents acting for them.
"From a victim's perspective, there is nothing more nauseating and disgusting than to find out that someone is making a profit off materials belonging to a person who killed a loved one," said Andy Kahan.
"It's like being gutted all over again."
