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Trial 'as bad as horror movie'
22/01/2007 11:03 - (SA)
Jeremy Hainsworth
Vancouver - Jurors who begin hearing evidence on Monday against a pig farmer accused of being Canada's worst serial killer have been warned by the judge to expect testimony "as bad a horror movie".
Robert William Pickton is charged with the deaths of 26 women, mostly prostitutes and drug addicts who vanished from Vancouver's impoverished Downtown Eastside neighbourhood in the 1990s.
He is accused of luring women to his family's seven-hectare pig farm outside Vancouver, where investigators say he threw drunken raves with prostitutes and plenty of drugs.
After his arrest in February 2002, health officials issued a tainted meat advisory to neighbours who may have bought pork from his farm, concerned that it may have contained human remains.
Pickton, 56, will first be tried for six of the deaths and has pleaded not guilty to each. British Columbia Supreme Court Justice James Williams decided that the other charges would be heard in a later trial to avoid overburdening the jury.
After Pickton was arrested and the first traces of DNA of some missing women were allegedly found on the farm, the buildings were razed and the province spent an estimated $61m to sift through hectares of soil at the farm.
Evidence has been so gruesome that some journalists covering the preliminary hearing have sought psychological counselling. During jury selection last month, Williams warned the potential jurors about what to expect.
"I think this trial might expose the juror to something that might be as bad as a horror movie and you don't have the option of turning off the TV," he said as he excused one juror.
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