The killer — diagnosed as a psychopath and a severe sexual sadist with a narcissistic personality disorder — has been denied parole twice already.
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On Nov. 3, 1995, Bernardo was designated a dangerous offender and is serving an indefinite sentence. While behind bars, he has admitted to the crimes he was convicted of, including the abductions and murders of 14-year-old Leslie Mahaffy, of Burlington, Ont., in 1991 and 15-year-old Kristen French, of St. Catharines, Ont., in 1992. He also admitted to crimes he was not convicted of and conceded he sexually assaulted about 20 girls and women between the ages of 14 and 23, between 1987 and 1992, and that he sexually assaulted and caused the death of Homolka’s sister Tammy while she was drugged.
The overall concern is that the transfer to a medium-security penitentiary is a sign Bernardo, 60, is making progress toward being granted parole — something he was denied twice so far, in 2018 and 2021.
The possibility of Bernardo’s release was unimaginable in 1995, before he was declared a dangerous offender. The judge who made the decision on the designation was provided with a psychiatric assessment that found the possibility of Bernardo being treated for what motivated his predatory crimes was extremely remote.
The psychiatric assessment, dated Nov. 2, 1995, diagnosed Bernardo as a psychopath and a severe sexual sadist with a narcissistic personality disorder. The psychiatrist who prepared the assessment determined Bernardo’s conditions were not treatable.
When Bernardo was first denied parole in 2018, the parole board found he had no remorse or empathy for the damage he caused.
“Your crimes devastated numerous victims and their families. The lifelong impact you had on so many lives is heart-wrenching and indescribable,” the board wrote. “As powerful as victim statements (presented at the 2018 hearing) are, they cannot convey the extent of the destruction that you caused around you because of your never-ending need for power and control over innocent and vulnerable women. You admit that you never stopped to consider their needs as you were so wrapped up in your own desires, disregarding the pain and suffering of others. In the last few years, you wrote on more than one occasion that you did not care for your victims, even commenting about the use they made of their victim status.”
According to the written summary of the decision the board made three years later, again denying him parole, Bernardo surprised his parole officer by mentioning he wanted to be released to a halfway house “in another region of Canada,” outside Ontario.
“You told the board that you are open to any treatment, but when asked, you could not identify any further needs that require treatment,” the parole board wrote at the time. “As your plans for release remain unconfirmed and fail to address your assessed high risk for sexual offending, the board finds that your proposed plans fail to manage your risk in the community.
“A review of your self-management plans shows that you primarily plan to rely on maintaining a ‘virtuous’ life and using religious practices to manage all of your risk factors. However, the board views this as a simplistic solution to very complex issues. It is of concern to the board that you repeatedly express that you are a low risk of reoffending when information generated by available psychiatric and psychological assessments concludes that you remain at a high risk for sexual offending.”
During the 2021 hearing, Correctional Service Canada recommended that Bernardo be denied any form of release. They felt that while Bernardo was “compliant and motivated, programming and other interventions remain difficult to provide to you as they normally occur in a group setting, which would compromise your safety.”
The COVID-19 pandemic limited the amount of time Bernardo’s case management team could spend with him, and during most of the years he spent in a maximum-security penitentiary in Ontario he had little and sometimes no interaction with other offenders.
During the same hearing, the board was told that while Bernardo met “the criteria for medium security, your personal safety would be in jeopardy in that environment.”
Two years later, Bernardo was transferred to Macaza, an institution that specializes in handling sex offenders.