Robert Pickton's lawyers introduced evidence that star Crown witness Lynn Ellingsen had once been involuntarily admitted to a hospital for psychiatric reasons.
Defence lawyer Richard Brooks showed Ellingsen -- an admitted alcohol and drug abuser -- some medical documents on Tuesday during the ongoing murder trial.
A certificate from Surrey Memorial Hospital dated May 25, 1995 showed the involuntary committal under the Mental Health Act.
Another, dated March 24, 1997, indicated an emergency admittance for substance abuse, paranoia and cocaine abuse.
That document had a list of symptoms. The one "visual hallucinations" had a check mark beside it.
Ellingsen testified Monday that despite being addicted to crack cocaine, the drug never caused her to hallucinate.
"I never denied paranoia comes with using cocaine," she told Brooks on Tuesday. Ellingsen suggested the committal happened because she and her mother didn't have a good relationship.
Brooks also tested Ellingsen's memory, asking her to recall the number of police officers she's had contact with since giving her first statement in 1999.
Fifteen minutes after court began, Ellingsen asked -- in a weak, slurred voice -- for a break to try and recall some of the names.
When court resumed, she was able to name three -- a female officer with whom she had the most contact and two others.
On Monday, Ellingsen made one of the most sensational claims of the trial when she testified seeing Pickton with a woman's body hanging from a hook on a chain in his slaughterhouse.
"I saw this body, it was hanging and uh, Willie pulled me inside around the door, walked me over to the table and he made me look. And he told me if I were to say anything, I'd be right beside her," she testified.
Ellingsen had been working for Pickton for three months, cleaning and doing other odd jobs around his farm. She left the property after coming upon Pickton and the body.
She is the first witness to put Pickton in direct contact with a victim.
While the seven-man, five-woman jury has heard about the forensic evidence of victims being found at Pickton's Port Coquitlam, B.C. property, the defence maintains Pickton didn't kill anyone.
He is on trial in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster on six counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Mona Wilson, Sereena Abotsway, Marnie Frey, Brenda Wolfe, Georgina Papin and Andrea Joesbury. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges.
Discrediting Ellingsen
Ellingsen was frank about her drug use, something the Crown brought out on Monday.
"You start and you have difficulty stopping," said Brooks.
"I've been like that," she said. On Monday, Ellingsen said she and one boyfriend had periods where they consumed up to $500 worth of crack cocaine per day.
Ellingsen admitted Monday to using crack as recently as two weeks ago.
CTV's Todd Battis told Newsnet that the defence brought up that Ellingsen had given 16 different statements to the RCMP between 1999 and 2005.
"Clearly what they're trying to do is discredit her and (show) inconsistencies in her statements over time," he said.
Ellingsen told Brooks: "I've given several statements. Dates and times, they don't mean anything to me."
The Crown didn't directly ask Ellingsen when the alleged slaughterhouse incident occurred.
She said it would have been before she gave her first statements in 1999. Ellingsen told the jury she was "completely untruthful" in her first statement and didn't tell police what she saw.
Brooks asked her if Pickton had drugs on the property and if she had ever borrowed money from him.
She answered yes to the first and no to the second question, saying she had worked for the money.
But then the defence brought out her 2003 preliminary hearing testimony that Pickton didn't have drugs on the property and that she had borrowed money.
Battis said the defence is working its way towards the dramatic event Ellingsen described on Monday. She could be on the stand the rest of the week, he said.
With a report from CTV's Todd Battis and files from The Canadian Press
