'Monster' father who sexually abused his 3 children faces sentencing next month
CBC
Retired Edmonton personal injury lawyer Helmut Berndt was well-known and successful.
His oldest daughter, Juanita Falkingham, now 40, and her two younger siblings spent decades concealing the ugly truth about their childhoods.
"A lot of demons ... were hidden for many, many years," Falkingham told CBC News in an interview last week.
"We seemed like the perfect family. Parents had lots of money. We got lots of things. Everybody appeared to be happy."
Last month, a jury found Berndt, 73, guilty of sexually abusing his three children for 15 years. The crimes began in 1986 and lasted until the end of 2001.
His sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 3.
Before the Edmonton Court of Queen's Bench trial started in early April, his victims successfully applied to have a mandatory publication ban lifted.
"We felt like this publication ban protected Helmut and not us as the victims," said Berndt's youngest child, Lavinia Perreault, 36.
"He's a well-known lawyer and we felt like it was important that we put his name out and people realize and learn what he did. What kind of a person he is."
Both women call Berndt a monster.
"I want everyone that knew him to understand that we did not have a good life," Falkingham said.
"He doesn't want people to know the kind of person, the kind of monster that he actually is and what he did."
Court of Queen's Bench Justice Earl Wilson found that Falkingham was sexually molested by her father multiple times, from her earliest memories at age five or six up to age eight or nine.
Falkingham said the incidents always began with her father reading a bedtime story.