TORONTO (CP) - An "agitated" Paul Bernardo continues to insist it was his intention to set Ontario schoolgirl Leslie Mahaffy free and that Karla Homolka hatched a murder plot on her own, CBC's The National reported Tuesday.

Bernardo spoke with Ontario Provincial Police on Friday before discussing his claim with his lawyer, Tony Bryant, that a panicked Homolka attempted to murder Mahaffy when the young girl's blindfold fell off, Bryant said in an interview with the CBC.

Bryant said his client wants people to know that it was his intention to set the rape victim free and that it was Homolka who panicked, despite her efforts to present herself as a submissive, battered woman acting on Bernardo's whims.

Bernardo, who insisted at his trial that Homolka choked Mahaffy and Kristen French to death, is barred from speaking publicly about the case.

Homolka was freed on Monday after serving a 12-year sentence for the Mahaffy and French killings. Bernardo is serving a life sentence.

"He wanted to get the message across that she actually tried to kill Leslie Mahaffy by means of an embolism, by injecting an air bubble into her bloodstream," Bryant said.

"Because she was afraid that because the blindfold had fallen off, that she (Mahaffy) would be able to recognize Paul (Bernardo) and presumably herself."

The claim by Bernardo has not been proven in court.

Homolka agreed to the 12-year sentence for her role in the rape, torture and death of French and Mahaffy, as well as that of her own 15-year-old sister Tammy.

In exchange, she testified against ex-husband Bernardo, who was convicted in 1995 on two counts of first-degree murder and later declared a dangerous offender -- a designation that keeps him behind bars indefinitely.

Bryant said Bernardo couldn't keep his silence anymore, as Homolka garners international media attention -- granting a one-on-one interview to tell her side of the story to CBC's French-language network on her first day of her freedom -- and attempts to slip into a quiet life of freedom.

"He became agitated maybe as a result of seeing all the media attention over the last several months," Bryant told CBC.

Neither police nor the Ontario's Crown Attorney's office would comment, CBC reported.