Defence rests in pig farmer trial

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/americas/7049355.stm

Version 0 of 1.

Defence lawyers for the man accused of being Canada's worst serial killer have rested their case.

Vancouver pig farmer Robert Pickton is charged with killing 26 sex workers.

The 57-year-old is initially being tried for the murder of six women, whose dismembered bodies were found on his farm.

He has pleaded not guilty and expert witnesses for the defence questioned whether he was clever enough to have killed such a large number of people.

The defence had called some 30 witnesses, who were questioned for several weeks, after the prosecution rested its case in August.

Both sides are due to sum up their arguments on 13 November, with the jury's deliberation expected to start a week later.

"I think that everybody involved would like to see the end of the case," said Peter Ritchie for the defence.

"It's been a long nine months for everyone involved."

Prostitutes and drug addicts

Most of the women Mr Pickton is accused of murdering were prostitutes and drug addicts who disappeared from Vancouver's gritty Downtown Eastside during the 1990s.

Mr Pickton had told an undercover policeman he had killed 49 women but was arrested before he could reach his goal of 50, the prosecution claimed when the trial opened in January.

They allege Mr Pickton lured the women to his farm where he murdered and dismembered them before feeding some of their remains to his pigs.

An investigation into the case of some 40 women who have been declared missing from the Vancouver area is ongoing.