But booked up with Bernardo, it's possible she agreed to take part in three-way sex with kidnapped teenage girls as part of a willingly subservient role, said Rice, whose hospital houses some of the province's most dangerous offenders. It appears the two found each other. Homolka testified Bernardo beat her into submission and blackmailed her over her role in the death of her sister, who was drugged and raped by the couple. Two psychologists called by the Crown suggested Homolka suffered from battered women's syndrome. Rendered helpless and hopeless by repeated beatings, someone in her shoes could feel obliged to take part in the most heinous crimes, they said.
Hare is skeptical.
To me, battered women's syndrome does not explain what she did. Karla Homolka remains something of a diagnostic mystery. Dr. Angus McDonald wrote in his report, which the Bernardo jury never saw. Despite her ability to present herself very well, there is a moral vacuity in her which is difficult, if not impossible, to explain. In Bernardo's case, it appears there were no ethical restraints to hold him back from sex that inflicted pain, terror and humiliation on his partner, psychologists say.