CREDIT: Allen McInnis, The Montreal Gazette

News photographers chase after the van carrying Karla Homolka from her court appearance in Joliette, Que., yesterday. Ms. Homolka, shown in the van is to be released next month. (An artist's sketch shows the 35-year-old as she looked in court.)

JOLIETTE, Que. - Courtroom No. 105 settled in quickly, anxiously as Quebec Superior Court Judge Jean R. Beaulieu took the bench here shortly before 10 a.m. yesterday.

Tim Danson, the lawyer representing the families of murdered Ontario schoolgirls Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French, sat prominently in row one, one of the first faces killer Karla Homolka would see in her first appearance in public in a decade.

Moments later, Ms. Homolka was led to the prisoners' box, wearing handcuffs, a single-breasted, beige pant suit over a black, mock-neck shirt and ankle shackles. Gone was the image of the sultry-eyed 22-year-old femme fatale arrested in 1993.

Instead, an aging 35-year-old woman, hardened by 12 years in federal penitentiaries, gazed impassionately around the room, fidgeting in her chair and occasionally pushing her shoulder-length blond hair behind her ears.

Niagara regional police detectives, reporters and curious spectators stared back from the courtroom's 50 reserved seats.

About 150 more reporters and members of the public crowded into two adjacent courtrooms to watch on video projection screens. Outside, a fleet of television satellite trucks and news vans, manned by dozens of field producers and technicians, encamped on Rue Baby, broadcasting live reports across the nation from this town about an hour northeast of Montreal.

At issue is whether Ms. Homolka remains a danger to the public and should be restricted and supervised when she is released from the nearby Joliette Institution in early July when her controversial 12-year prison sentence for two counts of manslaughter runs out.

Believing she is remorseless and still poses a serious risk to society, Ontario Crown prosecutors are asking Judge Beaulieu to impose a recognizance order on Ms. Homolka. It would require her to regularly report her whereabouts anywhere in Canada, to stay away from other criminals, give authorities four days' notice before travelling to Ontario, as well as other controls.

But her lawyer, Sylvie Bordelais, insisted in court yesterday that Ms. Homolka is a battered wife who was manipulated and controlled by her monstrous former husband, Paul Bernardo, into committing the crimes. He is serving two consecutive life terms at Kingston Penitentiary.

She presented several reports from psychiatrists and psychologists who have assessed Ms. Homolka over the years and who determined her to be a victim of post-traumatic stress disorder caused by Mr. Bernardo's violence and depravities and is unlikely to re-offend now that he is out of her life.

Some legal experts also say imposing new restrictions after Ms. Homolka has served her entire sentence -- the "deal with the devil" that Ontario prosecutors made with her in exchange for her crucial testimony at Mr. Bernardo's 1995 trial -- is a politically charged form of retroactive punishment that violates due process and fundamental justice.

Ms. Bordelais, in fact, asked the judge to stop the hearing at the outset because her client's constitutional rights were being trampled and the Crown was reneging on its plea-bargain deal.

The judge quickly dismissed her arguments and instructed the Crown to present its case.

As Ms. Homolka listened attentively, the Crown's opening witness, Niagara regional police Const. Brian Noble, began delivering a stark, dry rendition of her complicity with her former husband, Paul Bernardo, in the 1991-92 kidnappings and sex slayings of Leslie, 14, and Kristen, 15, both of the St. Catharines area.

As the evidence was read out, the atmosphere turned sombre. Ms. Homolka's gaze shifted to floor of the prisoners' box. At one point, Ms. Bordelais rose from her seat and told the judge the police narrative of the known facts was unnecessary. The judge instructed Const. Noble to continue.

Ms. Homolka whispered to a guard minutes later that she wanted to speak with Ms. Bordelais. The two women held a hurried, hushed conference. Ms. Homolka returned to her seat, ankle chains rattling, bowed her head and purposely adjusted her blond locks to conceal her face, an apparent attempt to thwart two media sketch artists from capturing her image for the nation to see.

Const. Noble then recounted her involvement in the death of her younger sister, Tammy.

The 15-year-old choked to death on her own vomit on Christmas Eve, 1990, after being drugged by Ms. Homolka and raped by Mr. Bernardo in the basement of the Homolkas' St. Catharines home. Neither was charged in that case.

In the most melodramatic moment of the day, Ms. Homolka repeatedly wiped her eyes with a tissue as Const. Noble told the court about Tammy's death. The teary-eyed gesture infuriated Mr. Danson.

"She had a choice to ensure that my clients weren't tortured and brutalized and murdered," he said later outside court. "She had a choice to make sure that her sister wasn't violated and murdered.

"To see her (crying)... it's a little bit late. My clients are dead. My clients' parents have to suffer for the rest of their lives. If she feels bad, it's because of the predicament she now finds herself in, not because of what happened. This is the continuation of a big con."

Back in court, Const. Noble dismissed the notion that Ms. Homolka was helpless against Mr. Bernardo. He recounted how she once stopped him from beating their puppy to death. Another time, when he demanded she have sex with a dog, she told him she'd rather die.

The court also heard of Ms. Homolka's involvement in the drugging and rape of another teenager, known only as Jane Doe. She was granted immunity from prosecution in that case, too, again in exchange for her damning testimony against Mr. Bernardo.

But Canadians finally turned on Ms. Homolka, and her battered-wife defence, when homemade videos of the girls' sex slayings -- discovered after her plea-bargain deal -- surfaced, showing her assisting Mr. Bernardo in raping, humiliating and degrading the teens.

"Everybody is talking about her and saying her sentence is too lenient," Const. Noble told the court.

Late in the day, James Ramsay, representing Ontario's attorney-general's office, struck back at Ms. Bordelais' earlier contention that with Mr. Bernardo's criminal influence gone from her life, Ms. Homolka would not re-offend.

He detailed how she has been romantically involved with a man she met in prison in 2001. He is serving time for the murder of his girlfriend and the pair apparently correspond by mail.

The hearing continues today.

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