Paul Bernardo

Coordinates: 44°13′16″N 76°30′53″W / 44.22111°N 76.51472°W / 44.22111; -76.51472

Paul Kenneth Bernardo, also known as Paul Jason Teale (born 27 August 1964), is a Canadian serial killer and serial rapist. He is particularly known for the highly publicized sexual assaults, tortures and murders that he committed with his wife Karla Homolka. Bernardo also committed serial rapes in the east-Metropolitan Toronto city of Scarborough. In addition to the confirmed murders of Tammy Lyn Homolka, Leslie Erin Mahaffy, and Kristen Dawn French, there are several other possible victims or intended victims.

In 1975, Bernardo's father Kenneth fondled a girl and was charged with child molestation. He also sexually abused his own daughter. Bernardo's mother became depressed over her husband's abuse, withdrew from family life, and lived in the basement of their Scarborough home. Though the elder children felt the effects of the emotional and mental turmoil, young Paul appeared to be unscathed by it. In his book Lethal Marriage, Nick Pron describes the young Bernardo: "He was always happy. A young boy who smiled a lot. And he was so cute; with his dimpled good looks and sweet smile, that many of the mothers just wanted to pinch him on the cheek whenever they saw him. He was the perfect child they all wanted; polite, well mannered, doing well in school, so sweet in his Boy Scout uniform." Beneath the charming facade, however, Bernardo had from a young age developed dark sexual fantasies and enjoyed humiliating women in public and beating up the women he dated.