Schoolgirl killer Paul Bernardo's admission of guilt in a two-decades old rape case may mean that another man was wrongly charged and convicted for the crime, according to a report.
Bernardo admitted to the rape in a list of confessions he sent to his lawyer two years ago, the Toronto Star reports.
The letter Bernardo sent to lawyer Tony Bryant consisted of a list of confessions that included 10 rapes.
Bernardo had already been convicted for some of the crimes, while others had been put aside during his trial due to a lack of evidence.
Bryant told the Star that upon reviewing the list of confessions, police found that one of the rapes Bernardo admitted to matched up with a complaint police had received in the late 1980s in St. Catharines, Ont., near Bernardo's home. However, another suspect had been charged and convicted for the crime.
Details are sketchy on whether the convicted person pleaded guilty or whether there was a trial, Bryant said. In fact, the person's name has never been released, the Star reports.
A senior Crown prosecutor told the Star the file is now under review, but there is no word on whether it could lead to a wrongful conviction settlement.
Police have interviewed Bernardo twice since Bryant received the letter in November 2005. There's no word on what, if any, impact the confession could have on Bernardo's future.
Bryant said he isn't sure why his client decided to clear the air so many years after he committed the crimes.
"I don't know what his thought process is -- why, all of a sudden, this would be something he would clear the air for," Bryant told the Star. "He just did."
Canada's most notorious serial killer and murderer, Bernardo is serving a life sentence in Kingston Penitentiary.
Fourteen-year-old Leslie Mahaffy, of Burlington, Ont., was kidnapped, tortured and eventually murdered by Bernardo in 1991. Her body was dismembered, encased in concrete and finally submerged in a lake.
Kristen French, 15, was abducted by Bernardo and his then-wife Karla Homolka in 1992. She was held captive for days, raped repeatedly and finally murdered -- her naked body eventually found in a ditch near Burlington, Ont.
During the grisly trial, it was revealed that the couple recorded their torture of the girls while inside their home in a St. Catharines suburb.
In 1995 Bernardo was convicted of first-degree murder. Homolka, meanwhile, worked out a plea bargain that saw her testify against her former husband in exchange for a 12-year sentence on two counts of manslaughter. She now lives in Montreal.
