eBay Canada pulls Homolka prision letters from auction
Published January 12th, 2006
On-line auction house eBay Canada has pulled the plug on the sale of a series of prison letters written by schoolgirls killer Karla Homolka.
The decision came late Wednesday morning.
“That [the proposed auction] does violate our offensive materials policy and it has been ended,” eBay Canada spokeswoman Alexandra Brown said.
EBay’s offensive-materials policy states that it can use its discretion, “out of respect for the families of murder victims,” to remove listings for items “closely associated with individuals notorious for committing murderous acts within the last 100 years.”
Such items, eBay said, can include letters, artwork or novelty items bearing the name or image of the criminal.
Ms. Brown said the listing of Ms. Homolka’s letters was a “clear” violation of that policy.
Before being pulled, the auction had attracted roughly a dozen bids, with the highest topping $1,600 (U.S.).
The auction offered a total of 33 handwritten letters sent by Ms. Homolka to a former co-worker while Ms. Homolka was serving a 12-year sentence in Kingston for her part in the sex slayings of two Ontario teenagers.
The listing said that the letters were written by Ms. Homolka between 1993 and 1995.
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