Legal Research

Bernardo Interview Tape to be Available to All Media

By Connie Crosby

Today Ontario Superior Court Justice David McCombs made his final ruling allowing all media–television and internet alike–access to a tape of an interview with Paul Bernardo.

The video, running 31 minutes, shows Bernardo being questioned in a Kingston, Ontario jail on June 7, 2007 about the murder of Elizabeth Bain. Bernardo was not originally considered a suspect in her death, but some lawyers believe he should have been. Robert Baltovich was convicted of Bain’s murder in 1992.

The tape was meant to be evidence in Baltovich’s court case this past April, but was never played. According to the CBC website:

The tape was never played in court because the Crown announced at the opening of the trial it had no chance of conviction and therefore would not present evidence or witnesses.

Baltovich was acquitted of the murder.

In earlier reports Justice McCombs was reported to be considering making the tape accessible only to television; however according to CBC Newsworld, in his final decision today he ruled that once a tape is released to television it cannot be controlled and could make its way to the Internet regardless.

Sources:

Judge allows Bernardo interview to be shown on air, web (CBCnews.ca, June 11, 2008)

Bernardo Tape Will End Up Online Regardless Of Crown Decision: Experts (CityNews.ca, June 8, 2008)

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on June 10, 2008 (boomark / email).