Paul Bernardo: A True Dangerous Offender?
According to the Criminal Code of Canada the label "dangerous offender" refers to Canada's most violent criminals and sexual predators. The offender is considered dangerous if s/he demonstrates a pattern of repeated behaviour showing a failure to control the behaviour and the possibility of causing injury or death to others or if s/he inflicts severe psychological damage on other people. The offender is considered dangerous if s/he shows a pattern of repeated aggressive behaviour and shows indifference toward consequences of his/her actions toward others. The offender is considered dangerous if her/his actions are brutal or sexual in ...view middle of the document...
His criminal behaviour excalated to the murder of Tammy Homolka in 1990, and the kidnapping, torture and murders of Leslie Mahaffy in 1991 and Kristen French in 1992.
Tammy Homolka was the younger sister of Karla Homolka, Bernardo’s partner. On 24 December 1990, Bernardo and Homolka gave Tammy Homolka alcoholic drinks spiked with a sedative. After Tammy Homolka passed out the two raped her. Tammy Homolka became sick while sedated and died. Homolka covered up evidence of the assault and called an ambulance. At the time, the drugs in Tammy Homolka’s system went undetected and the official cause of death was listed as choking to death on her own vomit but later the truth came out that Homolka and Bernardo were responsible for her death.
On June 14 1991, Lesley Mahaffy decided to walk home and face the fact that she was out past curfew. Bernardo was on Mahaffy’s street to steal license plates. He saw Mahaffy alone and kidnapped her and took her to the home he shared with Homolka. After 24 hours of rape and abuse by both Bernardo and Homolka, Mahaffy was murdered. According to Homolka, Bernardo strangled Mahaffy with an electrical cord. Homolka, a veterinary technician, had access to sedative drugs which were used to subdue Mahaffy, the same technique the pair
used in the rape of Homolka's sister six months before. Bernardo claimed he did not even know she was dead until he tried to pick her up to carry her away. He said he and Homolka panicked, and that he tried to resusitate her, without success. To get rid of the body, a saw was used to dismember the body into small pieces and then covered the pieces with cement. Homolka claims that Bernardo did this on his own while she was at work. Bernardo claims that she was, indeed, a part of the process.
On April 16, 1992, Kristen French was walking home alone from school. She was kidnapped by Homolka and Bernardo at knifepoint. Like, Mahaffy she as taken to Bernardo/Homolka residence and held captive. During her three days of captivity French was tortured, raped repeatedly and finally murdered. Bernardo and Homolka threw her naked body into a lake.
Based on many facts, Paul Bernardo is a true dangerous offender. He sexually assaulted many women over a period of many years and then his criminal behaviour escalated to the murders of at least three girls. “He demonstrated a pattern of repetitive behaviour of brutal sexual assaults which showed that he would, in all likelihood, continue such behaviour and so was a threat to the life, and/or well being of others. Throughout the trial Bernardo remained unmoved and showed a lack of remorse. He acknowledged his guilt in the sexual assaults and that he was unable to control his sexual urges.”(NBC....
