BELLEVILLE, Ontario — He was a square-jawed Canadian Air Force officer with a brilliant future, a man entrusted with flying prime ministers and Queen Elizabeth II. On Monday, he was exposed as a killer with a fetish for girls’ panties that he documented in a trove of twisted photos of himself.
At a hearing that reduced victims’ relatives to tears, the lurid photos were shown one by one in court as Col. Russell Williams, 47, pleaded guilty to murdering two women, sexually assaulting two others and committing dozens of break-ins in which he stole underwear from the bedrooms of girls as young as 11.
He faces a sentence of life in prison with no possibility for parole for at least 25 years.
Williams was expressionless and dressed in a dark suit. He kept his head down during the 40 minutes it took to read all the charges.
Until his double life came to light with his arrest earlier this year, Williams was the commander of Canada’s largest Air Force base.
The charges against the elite pilot — who appeared to be in a stable marriage — shocked the country and its military with the possibility of a killer in its officer corps.
Among other things, Williams pleaded guilty to murdering Jessica Lloyd, 27, whose body was found in February, and Marie Comeau, a 38-year- old corporal under his command who was found dead in her home in November. Both women were asphyxiated.
Williams also pleaded guilty to attacking two other women during separate home invasions in the Tweed, Ontario, area in 2009. One of the women, a 21-year-old single mother, said she was tied up, blindfolded, stripped and held captive for more than two hours while he forced her into sexual acts and photographed her.
Prosecutors said Williams targeted girls and women in their teens and 20s and often photographed himself in their underwear, which he then stole and cataloged at home.
Authorities said he came to the attention of investigators during a police roadblock a few days after Lloyd was reported missing. Tire tracks from his vehicle matched ones they were looking for.
