Prison releases a symbol of evil

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MONTREAL -- Canada's most notorious female inmate was secretly spirited from prison yesterday after serving 12 years for the rapes, torture and murders of three teenage girls, including her younger sister.

Correctional Service Canada said Karla Homolka was no longer in its jurisdiction, but she was nowhere to be seen by the horde of reporters lining the lone road from the prison in rural Ste-Anne-des-Plaines, about 20 miles northwest of Montreal.

The 35-year-old former veterinarian assistant is the most reviled woman in Canada, after she sealed what was dubbed by the press in 1993 as a "deal with the devil." Prosecutors gave her 12 years in return for her testimony against her ex-husband, Paul Bernardo.

Michele Pilon-Santilli, a spokeswoman for the correctional service, confirmed the release of Homolka -- who has changed her name to Karla Teale -- but would not say where she was headed.

As Homolka was being released, her attorneys were in court seeking a ban against the press on covering her release and subsequent whereabouts.

Her attorneys and father have said she intended to resettle in Montreal, having learned French during her 12 years in a Quebec prison. Some think she will first stay at the Elizabeth Fry Society halfway house for female inmates in Montreal, as she has received counseling and pledges of support from the private home for women.

Homolka became the symbol of evil in Canada in 1993 when she was convicted of manslaughter for her role in the kidnappings, rapes, sexual torture and murders of Ontario teenagers Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy. She also was convicted in the 1990 death of her 15-year-old sister, Tammy, who died choking on her own vomit on Christmas Eve after Homolka held a drug-soaked cloth over her mouth while both she and her husband raped her.

Tim Danson, the lawyer representing the French and Mahaffy families, told the Associated Press his clients were stunned that Homolka was free.

"They thought that they had made the necessary mental and emotional adjustments to get ready for today, but when I gave them word that she'd been released, there was just stunned, painful silence," Mr. Danson said in Toronto, the provincial capital of Ontario.

"They are feeling just this huge, huge sense of loss and a sense of enormous injustice for what's happened."

In return for her relatively light sentence, Homolka testified against Bernardo, a Toronto bookkeeper serving a life term for two counts of first-degree murder. Homolka told the court and psychiatrists she was a battered wife who took part in the rapes and murders to protect herself and her family from threats by Bernardo.

Months after prosecutors made the deal, however, Bernardo's attorneys handed over homemade videotapes by the couple that indicated Homolka was a willing participant.

In the subsequent two years, the couple kidnapped and videotaped the rapes and beatings of 15-year-old Kristen, then 14-year-old Leslie, who was strangled by Bernardo with an electrical cord while the teenager held a teddy bear Homolka had given her for comfort.

By the time the videotapes were revealed, Homolka's plea bargain had been sealed. But Canadians were outraged that she would be released in 12 years.

"People think she's cheated the system," said Jack Jadwab, executive director of the Association of Canadian Studies in Montreal.