MONTREAL — Quebec's order of nurses says it has received confirmation that sex murderer Karla Homolka has become a mother.
Gyslaine Desrosiers, head of the Quebec Order of Nurses, says her professional association has begun looking into published reports that Ms. Homolka may have been mistreated when she recently gave birth at Montreal's St. Mary's Hospital.
Both Ms. Desrosiers and Chantal Charron, a press attaché for the professional group, say that in probing the allegation, they were given confirmation Ms. Homolka gave birth.
“She gave birth to a little boy at St. Mary's,” Ms. Charron said in an interview Monday.
A representative of the nurses' order contacted the hospital after a Montreal newspaper published reports, based on an anonymous tip from inside the hospital, that Ms. Homolka had been poorly treated.
“[The order's representative] told me that Mrs. Homolka was there [at St. Mary's]. She had a baby,” Ms. Desrosiers told CTV News Monday. “She was a pregnant woman and she had a baby.”
Ms. Desrosiers says that nothing suggests Ms. Homolka, who has gained nationwide notoriety for her involvement in the slayings of Ontario teenagers Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy, was given poor treatment.
“Everybody gave her the care she needs,” Ms. Desrosiers said.
Julie Plamondon, a spokeswoman for St. Mary's, said in an interview Monday that the hospital was conducting its own investigation into the allegations.
“We're going to conduct an internal investigation to find out exactly what happened,” she said. “The investigation is going to be done with the people directly involved in her case.”
Reports that Ms. Homolka delivered at St. Mary's raised eyebrows. St. Mary's is a small hospital in Montreal's west end Côte-des-Neiges district, and the risk of being recognized is higher because the area has a relatively large English-speaking community.
Tim Danson, lawyer for the families of Ms. Homolka's victims, said he found news of her motherhood distressing. He has been in touch with the French and Mahaffy families, who are also upset.
“There a very distressing irony that their children won't grow up to have children, and the person who willingly participated in their abduction, kidnapping and sex torture and murder is now having a child,” Mr. Danson said.
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