What about Kristen, Leslie's rights, asks lawyer for Bernardo victims after transfer

Paul Bernardo should be returned to a maximum-security prison, the lawyer representing the families of his young murder victims said as he called on the Correctional Service of Canada to be more transparent about what led to his transfer to a medium-security facility in the first place.

Paul Bernardo should be returned to a maximum-security prison, the lawyer representing the families of his young murder victims said as he called on the Correctional Service of Canada to be more transparent about what led to his transfer to a medium-security facility in the first place.

Tim Danson represents the relatives of 15-year-old Kristen French and 14-year-old Leslie Mahaffy, who Bernardo kidnapped, tortured and murdered in the early 1990s.

Danson said he was informed by phone last week that Bernardo, who was serving a life sentence at the maximum-security Millhaven Institution near Kingston, Ont., had been transferred to a medium-security facility in Quebec.

He said the Correctional Service of Canada, citing Bernardo's privacy rights, refused to answer questions about the reason for the move. Danson said he was also unable to learn whether the serial murderer and sex offender was in protective custody or socializing with other inmates, which that security classification allows.

"This is one of Canada's most notorious, sadistic, psychopathic killers," he told The Canadian Press.

"We need the public in masses, in millions, to be writing to the minister, to the commissioner of corrections, and to the members of Parliament, to express their outrage over this -- that secrecy will not work. We want transparency."

Danson said he was pleased to see a statement from Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino on Friday, in which he called Bernardo's transfer "shocking and incomprehensible."