Ban on Paul Bernardo media interviews to stand

Canadian Press

TORONTO -- Notorious sex killer Paul Bernardo will remain barred from speaking to the news media because it could jeopardize the safety of other inmates or hurt his chances of rehabilitation, correctional authorities said Friday.

Note: While technically both guilty of sexual assault and murder, due to a controversial and highly unpopular plea-bargain deal, Karla Homolka served a 12-year sentence for manslaughter, and has since been released. Paul Bernardo, convicted of the remainder and bulk of their crimes, and legally declared a "Dangerous Offender", (Canada's equivalent of civil commitment), will not likely ever be released.

The decision to block Bernardo's access to the media was made by Donna Marrin, warden of Kingston Penitentiary, where he is serving an indefinite life sentence in the prison's segregation unit for the sex-and-torture murders of two Ontario schoolgirls.

Note: As is often the case with partners in crime, Bernardo and Homolka consistently accused one another; there has never been evidence to conclusively prove which one of them actually killed their victims .

"At times, when high-profile offenders have access to the media, it can be disruptive or destabilizing to the institution,'' said Holly Knowles, a spokeswoman for Correctional Service Canada.

Note: Publication and/or media bans have been in place for Paul Bernardo since the time he was first arrested; with the exception of his trial, which was closed to the public, he has not spoken with the public or the media since his arrest in February 1993—two years before his conviction.

"We have to consider the safety and security of the institution or individuals within", said Knowles.

Note: Officially opened on June 1, 1835, Kingston Prison is one of the oldest prisons in continuous use in the world. In April 1971, two inmates died during a prison riot; as a result, security was substantially increased and prison reforms were instituted. No inmate murder or riot has occurred at Kingston since the 1971 incident. Today the facility houses between 350 and 500 inmates; every inmate is given an individual cell.

Knowles also took issue with Bernardo's effort earlier this week to get around the ban by having his lawyer speak publicly for him.

Note: A commonly used slang term for "lawyer" is "mouthpiece".

"It's unfortunate because it undermines our initiatives in the sense that we believe that the (media) restriction was justified,'' she said.

Note: In 1995, prisoner Ty Conn escaped from within Kingston prison; Conn's body was found in Toronto, where he died from a self-inflicted gunshot while speaking on the phone to a producer from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

A second consideration in upholding the long-standing media blackout on Bernardo was whether media access was "inconsistent with or contrary to'' his rehabilitation plan, Knowles added, although she wouldn't say whether such a plan is in place for Bernardo.

Note: Kingston Prison is nationally regarded as "the dumping ground for Canada's worst inmates", who cannot function or live in other institutions due to their crimes.

***

There was nothing abnormal about Marilyn Bernardo's thirty-nine week pregnancy. Paul Kenneth was a twenty-inch-long, eight-pound-ten-ounce bouncing baby boy. But the huge black mark covering the entire left side of his head was grotesque. His mother cried out with horror the first time she saw him...

'This one is not the least bit affectionate', Marilyn wrote in her diary.

She described her youngest child as 'very selfish and stubborn.'

By age two and a half Marilyn discovered Paul couldn't talk. 'Stammers a lot', Marilyn dutifully noted.

As it turned out, Paul's tongue was attached to his palate by a strange flange of skin, like the webbing on a duck's foot. Once his parents realized he was literally tongue-tied, he was thoroughly examined...all they had to do was snip the duck's webbing, but in the meantime his inability to communicate caused him considerable frustration.

Then one day, shortly after he started grade ten, for no reason he ever understood, his mother stormed into his room, threw a photograph of a man on his bed and told Paul he wasn't who he thought he was at all. He was not Ken Bernardo's son, he was really this man's son.

She said he was a bastard and that he might as well get used to it.

Paul Bernardo's accomplice, and ex-wife, Karla Homolka, was the sole witness against him at this trial; she was released from prison in 2005, after serving a 12-year sentence for manslaughter. Today, she has a child, and lives somewhere in the Caribbean with her new husband.

Bernardo has always maintained that while he is guilty of rape, it was Homolka who committed the murders. His defense says, endocrinological testing exists that could determine the veracity of his claim.

On the grounds that he was wrongfully convicted of first-degree murder, in 2005 Bernardo used the last of his appeals in a petition to the Court to assume the costs of lab testing, roughly $50, 000. The Court determined funds did not exist for "such an exercise".

Between 1992 and 1995, the Canadian government spent over 11 million dollars to apprehend, capture and convict Paul Bernardo.

The cost of housing, clothing and feeding him in solitary confinement is roughly $125, 000 a year.

Paul Kenneth Bernardo was born on August 27, 1964; he is 45 years old today.

Happy Birthday, Paul.