The face of evil gloated over east-end Toronto in the late 1980s with a string of unsolved rapes. Eventually it was discovered that the rapist was a young married man. And that he and his wife later abducted two schoolgirls, imprisoned, tortured and raped them before murdering them. They then turned their sights to the wife's younger sister and she too became a target for rape and murder.

That pair, Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, exulted in the sexual gratification and joy they took in committing those atrocities that so shocked the Canadian public. Before full details were found implicating Paul Bernardo the Crown made a plea deal with Karla Homolka whereby she would reveal to police where documentation in the form of a video could be found in their house, and in exchange she would receive a lighter sentence.

And then it was disclosed through viewing the videos that she was his hideous match in the pleasure they took in torturing and raping young girls. She was an active participant, to enable her to gain the experience she craved alongside her depraved husband. He is serving a life sentence for his crimes and she served her sentence amounting to 11 years in prison, and on her release took on the persona of another person.

Within that other person lives an unrepentant monster. Who just incidentally has remarried and in the interim of her release gave birth to three children. The woman who enjoyed serving up agonizing pain to the children of others now nurtures children of her own. She returned from a sojourn abroad to live with her husband and children in a Montreal suburb.

Days ago it was revealed where she lived, where her children attend school, and how their neighbours discovering who she is, are reacting. Journalists tracked her presence, interviewed neighbours, school officials, psychologists and others to obtain reaction, then duly published in the newspapers. Reaction has ranged from horror and disgust that this affront to humanity is living a 'normal' life, to metaphorical shrugs and support for her as a free agent having served society's penalty against crime.

The nature of the crimes she took part in defies forgiveness, let alone comprehension. So when I read in the newspapers of this vicious woman's obvious self-entitlement expectations and that some segments of society are fully prepared to believe that she has 'paid' in full her obligation to society and justice for the unspeakable atrocities she was responsible for, I gag.

And then I wonder what the chances are that a violent and vicious sexual psychopath would find his soul mate in a woman whose own deviant desires and lack of compassion would echo his own. Enabling them together to launch an attack on society's belief that within their midst there is safety for their children from predators whose appetites are so disengaged from anything but the primordial muck of gratification only to discover that among us will be victims whose harm was too evil to believe.

But then there are precedents. Highly civilized, moral and conscious Germany whose culture was a beacon of literary and artistic and social highlights for humanity, became in a generation a sordid maelstrom of mass atrocities and the vector for near-success in its dedication to genocide.