HOMOLKA DECISION
A new start to life under Section 810
Woman subject to same law as Homolka calls restrictions 'not that much of a hassle'
Saturday, June 4, 2005 Page A7
EDMONTON -- As Karla Homolka sat in a Quebec prisoner's box this week, Brenda DeBakker was cheerfully climbing the steps of Edmonton's police headquarters for her weekly ritual: checking in with local police.
"It's not that much of a hassle," said the convicted 36-year-old rapist, who is subject to a rare order under Section 810 (2) of the Criminal Code, the same controversial provision Ontario's Attorney-General used to limit Ms. Homolka's freedom. Ms. DeBakker, who was wearing a baseball cap and dressed in jeans and a blue spring jacket, said the restrictions aren't too onerous and have brought more structure to her life since she left prison in October. "The 810 doesn't really bother me that much. [The police] are very nice. They are there more than to keep an eye on us," the thin, strawberry blonde said as she took a drag from a cigarette. "They like to help if they could."
As well as being required to report to police on her progress once a week, Ms. DeBakker, who is the only woman in Alberta to be subjected to the 12-month order, is banned from using drugs or alcohol, going to bars or carrying a weapon.
But while she says she should never have been subjected to the order, "because I'm not a high-risk offender," she adds that the public shouldn't be fooled into believing the order somehow protects them from a fresh offence by a criminal such as Ms. Homolka.
"You are free. You are out. It's not like they are in your living room, watching your every move," she said. "Jail is really the only way to protect the public from her."
Ms. DeBakker has six convictions for violent crimes dating back to 1986, including one in 1994 when she slashed a victim several times with a knife and another in 2000, when she assaulted a police officer.
"Karla didn't have a record. They are going to have a lot of evidence to prove she needs all these restrictions put on her," she said. "It's hard for me to believe that she would come out and do the same thing."
Calgary police and the RCMP declared Ms. DeBakker a high-risk offender when she was released from prison last October after serving time for an aggravated sexual assault she committed with her husband.
In June of 2000, the couple picked up a 33-year-old prostitute and took her to their 10th-floor apartment in northwest Calgary. There, the pair tortured and sexually assaulted the woman for 13 hours. The unidentified woman was ordered to perform sexual acts, led around the apartment like a dog with a necktie as a leash, held underwater in a bathtub and choked to the point where she passed out.
"What you have done to [the victim] has no place in civilized society," Mr. Justice Sal LoVecchio of the Court of Queen's Bench said in sentencing Ms. DeBakker and her husband in 2001 to three years in jail.
While being led away in handcuffs, she yelled at the victim, "I know where you live in Winnipeg."
Four years later, Ms. DeBakker and her husband are trying to start a new life in Edmonton with their children. Despite their convictions, they say they are innocent of the brutal sexual assault that was headline news in Calgary.
"It was a ménage à trois that went bad," her husband said as he held Ms. DeBakker's hand outside the police station. "Nothing untoward happened. No one was hurt."
He said he was not slapped with the rare court order after serving his time because he did not have a previous criminal record. "But because of her record, I knew they were going to 810 her," he said.
While he has found work in Edmonton, Ms. DeBakker is having a tougher time landing a job. "Everyone wants to know if you have a criminal record," she said. But she acknowledges her reintegration into society has been a lot easier than the one Ms. Homolka faces when she is released next month after serving 12 years in federal prisons for her role in the sex-slayings of Kristen French, Leslie Mahaffy and her own sister, Tammy.
Ms. DeBakker said even if the Quebec judge hadn't handed Ms. Homolka an order restricting her freedoms, "notoriety will be her prison. She is going to have one hell of a time when she gets out. She's so well known.
"One little bad move and she's going to be right back in the papers."