Paul Bernardo denied parole for a third time after victims' families pleaded with parole board

Killer and serial rapist Paul Bernardo has again been denied parole and will stay behind bars.

The Parole Board of Canada reached its decision Tuesday after a long, emotional hearing at La Macaza Institution in Quebec, north of Montreal. The families of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy — the schoolgirls Bernardo tortured and killed in the 1990s — pleaded with the parole board this morning to keep Bernardo locked away.

After deliberating for about 30 minutes, the two-member panel told Bernardo, now 60, he is being denied day parole, full parole and temporary absences from the medium-security facility.

"Although you have made progress, we are still placing a lot of weight on the clinical assessments, a lot of weight on the seriousness of your criminal behaviour. And for that reason, the board has determined today your risk would be undue," said panel member Tanya Nouwens.

Bernardo thanked the panel for reviewing his file before shuffling out of the hearing room.

It's the decision the families of the victims had been seeking.

Bernardo is serving a life sentence for kidnapping, sexually assaulting and murdering Ontario teenagers French, 15, and Mahaffy, 14, with the help of his then-wife Karla Homolka. He has been designated a dangerous offender — a label reserved for Canada's most brutal criminals.

"I remain hopeful that you understand the sadistic, manipulative and psychopathic nature of Bernardo's behaviour and the endless threat he represents to public safety," said Deborah Mahaffy, Leslie's mother, reading her victim statement.

"He chose to harm and kill others, and his behaviours and actions have dictated that he experience the loss of freedom to protect society from him."

Fighting back tears, Mahaffy said Bernardo's loss of freedom "does not in any way equate or compare to the magnitude of all the irreversible losses, rational fears [and] life-altering changes" the families still experience.

Leslie's brother Ryan Mahaffy also delivered a victim statement Tuesday — his first since Bernardo's trial decades ago, when he was just 11.

Mahaffy, now 40, told the parole hearing he and his family are still tormented by the "vile truth" of Bernardo's "brutality."

"My partner and I agonized over what to name our kids. We wanted to honour her by name but couldn't, for fear of what they will find when they or others Googled their names. Bernardo's actions haunt the simplest details of my life, including Father's Day, the day he murdered her," said Mahaffy, speaking via remote link.

"Even tasks around my home, like using a power saw or mixing concrete, cannot be done without intrusive thoughts of what he did to my sister."

Ryan Mahaffy urged the board to respect Bernardo's life sentence.

"That life is not yet over," he said.

'An agony for which there are no words'

Tuesday's hearing was marred by technical issues. It was hard for those observing to hear Kristen French's mother Donna, who could not attend the hearing in person.

In her statement, provided to the media, Donna French reminded the parole board that it has been "11,680 days that I have had to live without my sweet, beautiful daughter."

"Each day I'm not able to hug her, kiss her, tell her how proud I am of her and how very much I love her. For a mother, that is an agony for which there are no words," she said.

"I've longed for the girlish giggles of Kristen and her friends at her birthday parties, the sleepovers, the skating competitions, the pool parties, school concerts and family vacations."

French said she lives daily with the fear that another person will experience what Bernardo's victims went through.

"As long as there is any possibility of that happening, there will be no peace of mind for me or my family," she wrote.

Bernardo had been asking to be released to a halfway house in Quebec, or to be granted escorted absences from prison to attend additional programs for sex offenders in the community.

Bernardo's correctional officer told the hearing that he has "adjusted well" since moving to a medium-security facility but he overestimates his progress "while underestimating the risk he presents."

Speaking for the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC), Rose Kendall said the agency does not support Bernardo's request for parole.

Bernardo spent more than two hours answering questions from parole board members Nouwens and Steven Dubreuil Tuesday afternoon before they reached their decision.

Bernardo said he was abandoned and neglected by his parents and took on what he called a "victim stance." He said his mother was sexually abused and he wanted to "pay the world back."

"I have no excuse for what I did," he told the hearing. "I wanted revenge."

Nouwens asked how sexually assaulting and murdering other women amounts to "paying the world back" for his mother's assault.

"You are then victimizing other women," the parole board member said.

Bernardo said his attitude was, "F the world, I'll do it back."

Reading the board's decision, Nouwens suggested Bernardo needs to do more "open work" with his parole officer to understand his criminal behaviour.

Board originally planned to block in-person statements

This is the third time Bernardo has sought parole. The board also denied his requests in 2018 and 2021.

This latest hearing attracted controversy when the families' longtime lawyer Tim Danson told media last week the Parole Board of Canada originally planned to bar the families from being in the same room as Bernardo to read their statements, citing security reasons.

The matter triggered an immediate political backlash on Parliament Hill and, within a few hours, the board said it was looking at ways "to accommodate" the families.

Danson has argued that the laws should be changed so that victims don't have to go through the parole board process every few years. Until that happens, he said, the families have the right to confront their daughters' killer in person.

Bernardo was also convicted of manslaughter in the death of his 15-year-old sister-in-law, Tammy Homolka.

Karla Homolka served 12 years for the lesser count of manslaughter in the French and Mahaffy slayings — a sentence described in the media as "a deal with the devil" after it emerged that she played an active role in their deaths.

Bernardo has spent the bulk of his sentence at a maximum-security penitentiary in Ontario. He was moved to the medium-security La Macaza Institution last year.

News of the transfer sparked outrage and demands for changes to how dangerous offenders are treated.

Following a review, the Correctional Service Canada concluded all proper procedures were followed but acknowledged that the families of the victims should have been better informed.