UPDATE:

A weapons charge against convicted killer and serial rapist Paul Bernardo has been withdrawn.

The prosecution said there was no reasonable prospect of convicting Bernardo of having a “shank” in his maximum-security cell.

The weapon was described as a five-centimetre deck screw attached to a handle.

Bernardo’s lawyer suggested the weapon was planted by fellow inmates or  guards.

“As you know, he’s reviled not by just people out of jail but by people in jail,” Fergus (Chip) O’Connor said outside court.

“He had no knowledge of it being there. There were many opportunities for many other people to have placed it there.”

Friday’s hearing came just weeks before an expected parole hearing that could see the 54-year-old released after more than 25 years behind bars, most in solitary confinement.

Bernardo is serving a life sentence in the murders of 15-year-old Kristen French and 14-year-old Leslie Mahaffy.

He was convicted in 1995 of the first-degree murders of two teen girls and numerous sexual assaults.