Key prosecution witnesses in Canada's worst serial killer trial lied on the witness stand, a defense lawyer told the jury in closing arguments, as the sensational murder trial of Robert (Willy) Pickton wound down Monday.
In final arguments to the jury as the gruesome mass murder trial nears its end, lawyer Adrian Brooks used a power-point presentation to attack the credibility of witnesses Scott Chubb, Andrew Bellwood and Lynn Ellingsen.
Brooks urged the jury to disregard the evidence all three gave against Pickton, noting they were paid police informants and crack cocaine addicts.
Pickton, 57, a local pig farmer, is accused of killing 26 women in Canada's worst serial murder case ever.
The current trial, which began January 22, prosecutes the first six of those charges, with a further 20 expected later.
The alleged victims are on a list of about 60 women who vanished from the prostitution strolls of the squalid Downtown Eastside neighborhood of this west coast city, an open drug and sex market.
As it began nearly 10 months ago, the end of the marathon trial took place in a bizarre carnival-like atmosphere outside the courtroom.
Near the door, drummers and singers performed traditional aboriginal songs in memory of the dead women, while media from around the world set up broadcast facilities in a row of white tents set up against the autumn rain.
Final arguments by both defense and prosecution are expected to take several days, and will be followed by instructions to the jury by Justice James Williams. The jury is expected to deliver a verdict within two weeks.
As his final argument began, Brooks repeatedly stressed to the jury that the prosecution "must prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt ... (and) if you have a reasonable doubt it is your duty to acquit Mr. Pickton."
Prosecution witness Ellingsen had earlier testified in court that she saw Pickton butcher a woman hanging on a meat hook at his farm.
Brooks told the jury that Ellingsen "certainly" did not see that, "though she may have convinced herself she saw it ... through all that drug use."
Bellwood's main testimony had concerned an alleged conversation in Pickton's trailer home. Bellwood told the court that Pickton once described to him how he used handcuffs, a wire and a belt to kill prostitutes, then butchered them and disposed of their bodies.
But Bellwood's testimony was inconsistent, Brooks told the jury, noting that he changed his story about whether someone else was present during the conversation, and also failed to accurately describe Pickton's pig farm.
Brooks then gave a detailed account of Bellwood's long history of committing crimes to pay for his cocaine habit. He showed court documents that suggest Bellwood repeatedly lied in previous court appearances on various charges. "He is and remains, I say to you, a con man," said Brooks.
Earlier in the trial, the court heard that Chubb had told police about a syringe police found in Pickton's trailer home containing a trace of windshield-washer fluid, which Chubb suggested Pickton used to kill a woman.
But Brooks cited testimony by an expert police witness, who had told the court that hundreds of full syringes would have been required for the substance to be toxic.
Brooks charged that Chubb was motivated to testify against Pickton mostly for money. He showed the jury police documents with Chubb's signature accepting 750 dollars at one time as a police informant in the case, and he cited testimony in which Chubb talked about the possibility of a reward at the end of the case.
"We say that his motivation is money ... and the casualty of that motivation is truth," said Brooks.
Given the two men's shady past, Brooks asked the jury if it is reasonable to believe that Pickton would have trusted them enough to confide in them.
Of Pickton's statements to police which appeared to be self-incriminating, Brooks said they are "nothing like a confession. It's not a confession at all."
He urged the jury to consider that Pickton had been held in an interrogation room for 10 hours without a break, and had been told by police that he would be jailed for the rest of his life.
As well, Brooks asked the jury to believe that Pickton's intelligence is sub-normal, and that he would be incapable of carrying out and concealing these crimes.
The case included an avalanche of grisly evidence including severed heads found in buckets and freezers and a gun with a dildo over its muzzle holding traces of DNA from Pickton and one of the women.
The prosecution has argued that Pickton alone killed Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Ann Wolfe, Marnie Frey and Georgina Faith Papin.
