http://www.yahoo.com/headlines/current/international/stories/bernardo.html (Einblicke ins Internet, 10/1995)
TORONTO (Reuter) - A 31-year-old failed accountant was convicted Friday of first-degree murder, sexual assault and dismemberment in the sex torture slayings of two teen-age girls, following a trial that horrified Canada.
Jurors deliberated for more than six hours over two days before finding Paul Bernardo guilty of murdering Leslie Mahaffy, 14, in June 1991 and Kristen French, 15, in April 1992.
Bernardo automatically received two concurrent life sentences without eligibility of parole for 25 years for the murder convictions. There is no death penalty in Canada.
Bernardo's lawyer, John Rosen, said he plans to appeal the conviction. ``We're certainly going to recommend an appeal,'' Rosen said.
Bernardo abducted the schoolgirls at knifepoint and subjected them to lengthy sexual and physical abuse, much of which he videotaped.
He was convicted on nine criminal counts, including dismemberment of a human body, aggravated sexual assault, kidnapping and unlawful confinement. He will be sentenced on the remaining charges Sept. 15.
A crowd awaited the verdict outside the downtown courthouse, and one man called out after the verdict was announced: ``All we need now is a rope.''
The families of the victims smiled and broke into tears as the verdict was read in the packed courthouse.
Banned from public view by a court order, the videotapes provided a disturbing backdrop to the 15-week trial as the sounds of the sobbing victims being raped and tortured echoed through the courtroom.
The videos provided graphic evidence of many of the charges against Bernardo, but they did not show the girls' deaths. The trial became a battle of credibility between Bernardo and his ex-wife and admitted accomplice, Karla Homolka, the prosecution's star witness.
Homolka said she saw Bernardo strangle both victims with electrical cord.
During six days of testimony in his own defense, Bernardo admitted abducting and sexually abusing the girls and dismembering Mahaffy's body with a circular power saw, encasing the remains in concrete and dumping them in a lake.
But he denied killing the girls, saying they died while they were alone with Homolka.