TORONTO, June 20 -- Accused double-murderer Paul Bernardo forced former-wife Karla Homolka to have sex with her youngest sister, the 25- year-old testified Tuesday. 'Paul decided he wanted to have sex with Tammy,' the petite Homolka said quietly from the witness stand during her second day of testimony. 'He decided the only way he could have sex with her was to drug her.' With assurances that Tammy would not be harmed, Homolka, then a veterinarian's assistant, stole a bottle of Halothane, a potent anesthetic, from the animal hospital where she worked, and got a prescription for sleeping pills. 'I was totally against the idea,' Homolka told prosecutor Ray Houlahan. 'But he threatened me, he hit me, he wore me down. I finally agreed to it. I thought it would be a one-time thing.' Bernardo's obsession with Tammy was not new, said Homolka. For several months before the assault, Homolka said Bernardo made her pretend to be Tammy during sex. He made her dress in Tammy's clothes and say: 'My name is Tammy. I'm 15 years old. I'm your virgin and I want to marry you.' Homolka, who has admitted criminal responsibility in the rape and death of her sister, will not be charged in this case or in another sexual assault on the only living victim, called Jane Doe to protect her identity. Homolka plea-bargained for a lesser sentence in exchange for testifying against her ex-husband who is accused of the murder. She is serving 12 years for manslaughter for her role in the deaths of Leslie Mahaffy, 14 and Kristen French, 15.
Sometime during December 1990, Homolka testified Bernardo made her buy a video camera with her credit card. He could not afford to pay for it because he had recently declared personal bankruptcy. Homolka testified Bernardo chose Dec. 23, 1990, as the date he would assault Tammy. 'He said 'This is the day I want to do this. It would be a great Christmas present for me,'' she testified. 'I cried and begged him not to do it. He said 'No, we're doing it.' And that was it.' Late that night Homolka mixed her sister a drink of eggnog and rum. Bernardo slipped the sleeping pills into the glass and Homolka served her sister the drink. Then the three went down to the family's recreation room to watch a movie. When Tammy fell asleep, Bernardo pulled off her clothes and raped her, while taping the assault with the new video camera balanced in one hand. Homolka covered Tammy's mouth with a cloth doused with Halothane. Then Bernardo made Homolka have sex with her sister. 'I was crying. I felt absolutely horrible, guilty, scared.' But Bernardo kept pushing her head down, making her perform sexual acts on her sister, Homolka testified. Minutes after Bernardo stopped the assault, Tammy vomited, choked and eventually died. Both Bernardo and Homolka hid all the evidence pointing to the attack. After the autopsy, Tammy's death was ruled an accident. The case has since been reopened and charges are outstanding. 'Could the accused have committed these sex acts on your sister without your help,' asked Houlahan. 'I don't believe so,' she answered. The video of the assault on Tammy Homolka, played once before, was played again in court Tuesday. Only the jury, judge, lawyers, Homolka and Bernardo viewed the explicit videotape. Justice Patrick LeSage ruled earlier that the public would only be allowed to hear the audio portion of a series of restricted videotapes. Homolka testified that she and Bernardo began crying when they found out Tammy had died. 'I couldn't believe it was true. I was totally devastated,' she said. 'I blamed myself for not being strong enough to tell him no.' Without thinking or trying to destroy evidence, Homolka testified she began to wash the comforter stained with her sister's vomit. 'It sounds really stupid, but all I could think was that my mommy was going to be mad at me and I wanted to clean up.' After Tammy died, the physical and mental abuse by Bernardo worsened. When he felt the couple's queen-sized bed was too small for them both, he told her to sleep on the floor. She did, she said, for most of their two-year marriage, in a sleeping bag and then on a foam mattress Bernardo bought for himself but let her use. For the second day since the trial began five weeks ago, Bernardo reacted to testimony in court. Again he shook his head and raised his eyebrows in response to Homolka's testimony. He stared at her throughout the day and glared at her as she told the court how he orchestrated the rape of her sister. She glanced timidly at him too. And she glanced at the families of the victims during lulls in the lengthy proceedings. Bernardo has pleaded innocent to nine other charges in connection with the deaths of Mahaffy and French. Mahaffy disappeared from outside her Burlington home June 15, 1991. Her dismembered body was recovered from Lake Gibson near St. Catharines two weeks later encased in eight blocks of cement. French was kidnapped April 16, 1992 from a church parking lot while walking home from school. Her naked, battered body was found 14 days later beside a rural road in Burlington.
