MONTREAL — Canada's most notorious female inmate was secretly spirited from prison yesterday after serving 12 years for the rapes, torture and murders of three teenage girls, including her younger sister.

Karla Homolka, 35, received the relatively light sentence in return for her testimony against her ex-husband, Paul Bernardo. Homolka told the court and psychiatrists she was a battered wife who took part in the rapes and murders to protect herself and her family.

Months after prosecutors made the deal, however, Bernardo's attorneys handed over homemade videotapes by the couple that indicated Homolka was a willing participant.

"I don't want to be hunted down," Homolka told RDI, the CBC's French language news network, after her release. "I don't want people to think I am dangerous and I'm going to do something to their children."

Speaking in slightly accented French, Homolka said in the interview, that "often I cry."

"I'm unable to forgive myself. I think of what I've done and then often I think I don't deserve to be happy because of this," said Homolka, who appeared drawn and tired.

Network officials said the interview took place at their Montreal studio hours after she left federal custody.

Michele Pilon-Santilli, a spokeswoman for the correctional service, confirmed the release of Homolka — who has changed her name to Karla Teale — but would not say where she was headed.

As Homolka was being released, her lawyers were in court seeking a ban against the media on covering her release and subsequent whereabouts.

Her lawyers and father have said she intended to resettle in Montreal, having learned French during her 12 years in a Quebec prison. Some believe she will first stay at the Elizabeth Fry Society halfway house for female inmates in Montreal, as she has received counseling and pledges of support from the private home for women.

Homolka became the symbol of evil in Canada in 1993 when she was convicted of manslaughter for her role in the kidnappings, rapes, sexual torture and murders of Ontario teenagers Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy. She was also convicted in the 1990 death of her sister Tammy, 15, who died choking on her own vomit on Christmas Eve after Homolka held a drug-soaked cloth over her mouth while both she and her husband raped her.

Tim Danson, the lawyer representing the French and Mahaffy families, said his clients were stunned that Homolka was free.

"They thought that they had made the necessary mental and emotional adjustments to get ready for today, but when I gave them word that she'd been released, there was just stunned, painful silence," Danson said in Toronto.

"They are feeling just this huge, huge sense of loss and a sense of enormous injustice for what's happened."