World Prisons
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Karla Homolka

1970

Nationality
Canada
Occupation
murder accomplice

Incarceration history

Facilities

Biography

Karla Leanne Homolka (born May 4, 1970), also known as Karla Leanne Teale, Leanne Teale and Leanne Bordelais, is a Canadian woman who acted as an accomplice to her husband, Paul Bernardo, taking active part in the rapes and murders of at least two girls and the rape leading to the death of her sister, Tammy Homolka, between 1990 and 1992. Homolka attracted worldwide media attention when a plea bargain with Ontario prosecutors meant she was only convicted of manslaughter, and served only twelve years for the torture, rapes and murders of the other victims, Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French. Homolka testified against Bernardo, who was convicted of the Mahaffy–French murders and received life imprisonment and a dangerous offender designation. Homolka's plea bargain came about after she told investigators that she had been Bernardo's unwilling accomplice as a result of domestic violence. However, videotapes of the crimes surfaced after the plea bargain and before Bernardo's trial which showed that Homolka had been a more active participant than she had originally claimed, including in the rape and death of her sister. As a result, the plea bargain that she had struck with prosecutors was dubbed in the Canadian press the "Deal with the Devil". Public outrage about the deal continued until Homolka's high-profile release from prison in 2005. Following her release, Homolka settled in Quebec, where she married a brother of her lawyer. In 2007, she settled in the Antilles and Guadeloupe, but by 2014 had returned to Quebec.

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