Fwd: Risk Of Bernardo Killing Homolka Rated "High"

[Audree Flynn]

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From: alison...@comcast.net < alison...@comcast.net>
Date: Sep 17, 2007 8:59 AM
Subject: Risk Of Bernardo Killing Homolka Rated "High"
To: Audree Flynn <lostc...@gmail.com>

Kirk Makin
The Globe and Mail
September 2, 1995


Karla Homolka was the perfect partner in crime for a sadist such as Paul Bernardo, but she probably would have ended up dead like some of his other victims if she hadn't left him.

That was the conclusion of Angus McDonald, one of several psychiatrists who probed Ms. Homolka's enigmatic psyche and drew conclusions for the Crown as to what motivated her to help Mr. Bernardo confine, assault and kill girls.

The opinion of most of the psychiatrists was that Ms. Homolka was a battered woman - an opinion the jury at the Bernardo murder trial ultimately heard in a somewhat roundabout way.

However, Dr. McDonald's conclusions, which were not presented to the court because the Crown did not call him to testify, are in many ways the most interesting.

The risk of Ms. Homolka ending up a murder victim of Mr. Bernardo's was "monumentally high," he observed in his report. "In the absence of other outlets, he might well have eventually killed his wife, despite her being probably the perfect female accomplice, the like of which he was extraordinarily fortunate to find."

After watching Ms. Homolka perform in the witness box in July, Dr. McDonald noted in an update to his main report that there was a discrepancy between her aggressive testimony and "her view of herself as a fearful, terribly dominated individual, lacking the spine to stand up for herself."

He concluded: "At some point, intimidation and violence began to play a progressively greater role in securing her co-operation and compliance, although I doubt this was true early on."

Although some of the feistiness Ms. Homolka displayed in the witness box might have evolved since she left Mr. Bernardo in early 1993, Dr. McDonald said that, "at the same time, her presentation clearly suggests a degree of callousness and insensitivity of major proportion."

Compared with statistics for men, he said, female sexual sadists are extremely rare. But this alone did not inevitably mean that there must be some extraneous reason for Ms. Homolka's conduct.

"Her behaviour, to my mind, simply cannot be explained solely on the basis of intimidation or abuse from Paul Bernardo - although this certainly must have played a role with increasing frequency over the years of their relationship," his report said.

Citing the death of Ms. Homolka's sister Tammy after she had been drugged and sexually assaulted by Mr. Bernardo and Ms. Homolka, Dr. McDonald said the pair easily was intelligent enough to know the risk to Tammy.

The two were obviously "substantially indifferent to this risk," he wrote. "To repeat their acts on others, knowing their lethal potential, speaks volumes about the character of the participants."

Although noting that Ms. Homolka showed "seeming nonchalance" in discussing every element of the case during an interview, Dr. McDonald nonethele ss found it an "extremely remote" possibility that Ms. Homolka had killed Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy.

"Even granting the very remote possibility that she did, it almost certainly would have been on the direction of Paul, who demonstrated, scripted and controlled the show."

Nathan Pollock, a psychiatrist retained by the defence to review the Crown's psychiatric reports on Ms. Homolka, concluded: "There seems to be little doubt Ms. Homolka was physically and emotionally abused by Mr. Bernardo.

"This, however, is not sufficient to conclude she was suffering from battered-woman syndrome, or that she was in such a confused and hopeless state of mind that she was unable to govern her own behaviour."

Dr. Pollock said the average battered woman is in her mid-30s and has lived 8.7 years with the batterer. The vast majority of battered women were abused physically in their youth, he said.

"Ms. Homolka was 20 years old; she was neither married no r living common-law and, according to my information, there is no evidence that she was physically abused as a child."

Most battered women are also physically isolated, Dr. Pollock said, whereas Ms. Homolka actually was living with her parents for most of the period involved.

"Perhaps the most striking difference between Ms. Homolka's situation and the criminal cases where battered women commit acts of violence is the nature of the offences."

In virtually every case, he emphasized, genuine battered women kill the batterers. In direct contrast, Ms. Homolka, according to her own testimony, was an accomplice of the batterer in killing other people.

Dr. Pollock said Ms. Homolka appeared to have exaggerated her symptoms, either to evade responsibility or to ensure that she received the assistance she desired in prison.

She is the type of person who is likely to blatantly deny having any psychological problems, he said. Although she would see herse lf as confident and socially adept, he said, others would be more likely to see her as narcissistic and egocentric.

Among the traits Dr. Pollock identified were: "immature, moody, shallow, rigid, hostile individual preoccupied with themes of violence and victimization."

She is hardly passive, he stressed, citing her parents' description of her as "usually a leader and somewhat bossy."

There were enormous variations in how the psychiatrists reported Ms. Homolka as behaving while she discussed the deaths of Tammy, Leslie and Kristen with them.

One of them said she was distraught, but most found her manner to be flat. Another psychiatrist, Peter Jaffe, suggested it was her way of dealing with stress, similar to the zombie-like demeanour she exhibited during an inmate-guard standoff at the Prison for Women in Kingston in 1994.

As a psychiatric specimen, Paul Bernardo was considerably easier to diagnose - even without the benefits of an interview.

Most of the psychiatrists for the Crown had no trouble concluding that Mr. Bernardo is a sexual deviant who thrives on causing pain to heighten his satisfaction.

For example, psychiatrist Stephen Hucker concluded that Mr. Bernardo's sexual sadism is so extreme that he falls into a group populated by only 30 of 8,000 killers analyzed by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Devoid of empathy for his victims, Mr. Bernardo's personality rendered him a far more likely killer, Dr. Hucker said.

However, Dr. Hucker concluded after extensive interviews with Ms. Homolka that there was nothing to indicate that she was abnormal before she met Mr. Bernardo.

The abuse that Ms. Homolka chronicled over the past three years for psychiatrists, police and eventually the court - most of it flatly denied by Mr. Bernardo - was immense and shocking.

She testified that it included having to sleep on the floor, being chased with a stun gun, being forced to parade naked on the couple's front lawn and being locked in the root cellar where Leslie's body had lain overnight before being dismembered.

Ms. Homolka told the psychiatrists that she thought of suicide often while she was with Mr. Bernardo, and viewed her plight as inescapable. She said the fact that Mr. Bernardo apparently had got away with the Scarborough rapes, as well as the killings in their home, reinforced this feeling.

In another statement Ms. Homolka only hinted at during her courtroom testimony, she told psychiatrists of a close and profound emotional bond she felt toward Kristen.

She also described a sanctuary within her body - "a piece of my heart" - that Mr. Bernardo could not invade and abuse. "In this area, she stored all her memories of Kristen French because she never wanted to forget or forgive herself for not being able to save her life," psychiatrist Chris Hatcher said in his report to the Crown.

Dr. Jaffe found Ms. Homolka to be a woman who had been terrorized and battered into submission. Testing within the superior range of intelligence, she was subject to paranoia, anxiety and anger that fluctuated between self-blame and hostility, he said.

Like the majority of his colleagues, Dr. Jaffe diagnosed her as having battered-woman syndrome and posttraumatic-stress syndrome.

However, Dr. McDonald disagreed. He said a more likely diagnosis would be alcohol abuse. He also said another diagnosis that would fit equally well would be of sexual deviation, probably of the sadomasochistic type.

A number of tests were administered to Ms. Homolka by the psychiatrists retained by the Crown. One test result suggested chronic maladjustment, suspicion and hostility. It also indicated someone prone to insecurity and anger when threatened. Naive and trusting in relationships, such a person quickly could become hostile, indignant, petulant and demanding.

Psychiatrist Alan Long, who conduct ed 30 hours of interviews with Ms. Homolka for the Crown, observed that she was "somewhat self-alienated and expresses some personal misgivings or a vague sense of remorse about past acts. She feels that life is unrewarding and dull and finds it hard to settle down.

"She views the world as a threatening place and sees herself as having been unjustly blamed for others' problems and feels that she is getting a raw deal out of life."

A test administered by Dr. Jaffe confirmed traits of suspicion and egocentricity in Ms. Homolka. "Anti-social behaviour is common, and may include lying, stealing, substance abuse, aggressive outbursts and sexual acting out," he said.

"These people tend to be impulsive, irresponsible and rebellious," Dr. Jaffe continued. "They frequently demonstrate strong feelings of hostility toward family members, and conflict with authority is typical. Their relationships are generally superficial, and marital problems are likely."

Such people also use denial and rationalization excessively, he reported. They frequently are hypersensitive and anxious, unco-operative and defiant. "These individuals often express strong needs for power and control and for denying their anger and hostility." They also attribute their difficulties and problems to others, he said.

Dr. Hatcher said in his report that Ms. Homolka seems positive and co- operative, but her bitterness quickly rises to the surface. He said she is fearfully dependent, shy, self-effacing and likely to assume a passive, self-sacrificing role in her relationships.

Ms. Homolka willingly would let others exploit and demean her, he said. By submerging her individuality, sabotaging opportunities, subordinating personal desires and submitting at times to abuse and intimidation, he said, she typically hopes to avoid what she fears most - abandonment.

Ms. Homolka's strong need for attention and affection also means she can be slighted easily an d will express her displeasure in indirect ways, Dr. Pollock said.

He said interpersonal relationships for such people are usually "shallow and exploitive with a lack of genuine concern for others."