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I nodded at her. “You see? I get it. I have no desire to hurt anybody here.”

She tightened her glare on me and seemed totally oblivious to the irony: She was the only one in the room who had tortured and killed children. Having done that, she knows better than anyone why parents might worry about their precious wards.

In the long, tense hour I spent with Homolka that day, she never once mentioned a single regret about the parents who would never see their three children grow up.

Time blurs facts, and it’s been a worrisome experience this week to be contacted by a few reporters who criticized Homolka’s neighbours for their concerns, and tried to get me to do the same.

But then, Homolka has always been divisive, and the truth, elusive.

Was she a willing participant in the horrifying crimes she and Paul Bernardo committed against girls, including the rape-death of her baby sister? Or was she a victim herself of a psychopath?

Her lawyer’s portrait of a serial killer as frightened mouse failed to change many people’s mind about the smart, strategic and self-possessed woman on the stand.

This week, there’s been something of a Homolka fatigue emerging, a desire to let her alone and keep her out of the press where her presence re-opens painful wounds. Make it all go away, some say, and let us forget the horrible discovery — too late — of the videotapes that showed Homolka actively, even happily, taking part in unspeakable sex crimes against terrified girls.