Ex-Canadian cmdr. pleads to murder, rape

OTTAWA: Former commander of Canada's largest air force base Colonel Russell Williams has pleaded guilty to all charges against him, including murder, rape, and several sexually motivated break-ins.

Williams pleaded guilty to two first-degree murder charges, two sexual assaults and 82 breaking and entering charges in a Belleville, Ontario court, a foreign news agency reported on Monday.

The 47-year-old faces an automatic life sentence with no possibility of parole for at least 25 years for the deaths of Jessica Lloyd, 27, and Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, 38.

Prosecutors said Williams targeted girls and women in their teens and 20s and subjected his victims to hours of sexual torture forcing them to pose for video and photographs, usually while blindfolded and bound.

Police also found thousands of lurid photographs at Williams' home, showing him present at the crime scenes.

He was arrested on February 8, a day after Lloyd's body was found on a rural road near her hometown of Tweed in east Ontario.

The decorated former commander of Canadian Forces Base Trenton in eastern Ontario once served as a pilot to prime ministers and Queen Elizabeth II during a 2005 visit.