Scared Monkeys Discussion Forum

Canadian farmer found guilty of murder By ROB GILLIES, Associated Press Writer
6 minutes ago
 


NEW WESTMINSTER, British Columbia - A jury convicted a 58-year-old pig farmer Sunday of murdering six women, handing him an automatic life sentence but finding that the killings were not planned.

 
Robert 'Willie' Pickton still faces 20 more murder charges for the deaths of women, most of them prostitutes and drug addicts from a seedy Vancouver neighborhood. If convicted on all those charges, he would become Canada's most prolific serial killer.

Police are still investigating the cases of almost 40 other missing women.

The remains of the six women he was convicted of killing were found on Pickton's farm but he denied he was responsible for their deaths.

Pickton listened to the verdict with his head bowed and later smirked at one point. He had been charged with first-degree murder in the six killings, but the jury convicted him on a lesser charge of second-degree murder which means they did not believe the killings were planned.

Two sisters of victim Georgina Papin screamed 'No!' when the jury foreman first got up and said "not guilty" on first-degree murder. But they later said they were pleased he was convicted on the second-degree charge.

Two jurors, both women, wiped tears from their eyes while the verdicts were read. The jury foreman glared at Pickton as the verdicts were read back by a court official.

Two jurors, both women, wiped tears from their eyes while the verdict was read

A conviction for any murder in Canada carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison and he will be sentenced on Tuesday when the judge will decide when Pickton might be eligible for parole.

During his trial, a prosecution witness Andrew Bellwood said Pickton told him how he strangled his alleged victims and fed their remains to his pigs. Health officials once issued a tainted meat advisory to neighbors who might have bought pork from Pickton's farm, concerned the meat might have contained human remains.

The jury of seven men and five women took 10 days to reach a verdict. They had the option of finding Pickton guilty of first-degree murder, second-degree murder or manslaughter or not guilty on any of the six counts.

First-degree murder, which means a murder was planned, also carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison but does not offer parole eligibility for 25 years. The second-degree charge offers parole eligibility in 10 years.

Pickton was convicted of murdering Mona Wilson, Sereena Abotsway, Marnie Frey, Brenda Wolfe, Andrea Joesbury as well as Papin.

"It should have been first degree," said Rick Frey, father of Marnie Frey. "You don't have six murders over that time and not have first degree."

During the trial, Papin's three sisters cried and clutched each other's hands in court while the judge reviewed the testimony of witness Lynn Ellingson. In her testimony, Ellingson said she walked in on a blood-covered Pickton as Papin's body dangled from a chain in the farm's slaughterhouse.

Before the jury started their deliberations on Nov. 30, Judge James Williams reviewed the transcript of a videotape with them in which Pickton is heard telling an undercover police officer that he had planned to kill 50 women, take a break, then kill 25 more.

Family members and friends gathered for a candlelight vigil outside the courthouse after the verdicts.

Marilyn Kraft, mother of one of the victims in the second murder trial Pickton will face, was relieved that Pickton got a life sentence based on the first trial.

"He's going away for life," Kraft said.

Edit to add name to subject title.  MB

he should be slaughtered  :smt065 :smt065

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/canada/Police+release+sketch+identify+Pickton+linked+Jane/4316099/story.html
Police release old sketch to identify Pickton-linked Jane Doe
February 11,2011
(http://www.vancouversun.com/news/canada/4316101.bin) A new composite sketch of a woman, known only as Jane Doe, whose partial skull was found near Mission in 1995 but who has never been identified.  ::snipping2::


 ::snipping2::
Jane Doe remains one of B.C.’s most mysterious missing-person files. The task force believes it has exhausted every effort to identify her through missing-person reports and is now hoping the composite will generate new tips from the public to crack open this old case.

Information about Jane Doe’s file has been sent to nearly every police agency and detachment in Canada, as well as to many in Washington State.

Her DNA has also been sent to every police lab in the country for comparison to other unsolved missing-women files.

Police last issued a public appeal in the case in 2000, releasing a far-less-detailed composite sketch and airing a CrimeStoppers segment on local TV.

And Jane Doe was back in the headlines after police made a shocking find in 2002 while searching Robert (Willie) Pickton’s pig farm for evidence in the notorious serial murder case: A heel and rib bone with the same DNA as the skull were found buried in a pit behind a slaughterhouse.

Pickton was charged — although never convicted — in her death.


 ::snipping2::

This is a very interesting and informative article.