Canadian teen killer Karla Homolka now a volunteer at children’s school

Canadian serial killer Karla Homolka now volunteers at a Christian elementary school. The convicted teen killer – who, along with ex-husband Paul Bernardo, raped and murdered at least three young women including her own sister – has been allowed to volunteer there since March.

CityNews reports that Homolka, 47, has been regularly seen at the school near Notre-Dame-de- Grâce residential neighbourhood in Montreal. She also reportedly occasionally volunteers in the Greaves Adventist Academy, even helping supervise a field trip of kindergarten students to the Montreal Science Centre on March 22. She also once brought her dog into a classroom so the students could pet the animal.

Concerned parents already spoke with the principal but Homolka was still allowed to volunteer, a source named Lily told the publication. Homolka’s children with husband Thierry Bordelais attend the same school.

“We don’t want her here,” Lily said of Homolka. “How would you feel knowing that your child is interacting with a person who is a serial killer? It’s not right.”

The Seventh-day Adventist Church, which runs the school, explained that she is not a regular volunteer. Homolka can also never be alone with the children.

“It is protocol for all of our schools across Canada, and most of the world, to do background checks, not only on teachers, but volunteers as well as clergy. As I said, she is not a regular volunteer. Rarely would she have cause to go into the school, and when she is, she is never alone,” church spokesman Stan Jensen told CityNews.

Who is Karla Homolka

Karla Homolka is a Canadian serial killer who gained worldwide media attraction following her arrest in 1993. She and then-husband Paul Bernardo were responsible for the death of at least three young women, the first of them was Homolka’s younger sister, Tammy. The couple spiked the 15-year-old girl’s drink during a family Christmas party in 1990 so Bernardo could rape her while unconscious. Tammy later died after choking on her own vomit. Her death was ruled as accidental at that time.

The couple also raped and killed schoolgirls Leslie Mahaffy, 14, and Kristen French, 15. There were several other rape and assault victims as well. In 1993, Bernardo was identified as the Scarborough Rapist, who sexually assaulted at least 10 women in the ‘80s. Following her husband’s arrest, Homolka confessed her crimes to a family member. She got a lawyer to help her enter a plea bargain in exchange for testifying against Bernardo.

She told the court she had been a victim of abuse by Bernardo and had only acted upon fear. However, the videotapes they recorded showed that was she a willing accomplice. Homolka’s plea agreement nevertheless stuck, and she was given 12 years’ term for manslaughter. She was released in 2005 with many conditions attached.

She is now married to Bordelais and is reportedly using the name Emily Bordelais. They have three children.

Paul Bernardo’s parole hearing

Bernardo, on the other hand, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 1995. He is said to be making a bid for parole in August. He was declared a “dangerous offender,” which made him unlikely to be released from prison, and so it baffles his victims’ families why he had a parole hearing date set.

“I thought he was determined a dangerous offender? But everybody gets a parole hearing,” Kristen French’s father, Dough French, told the Toronto Sun.