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The Crown will present taped evidence that Robert Pickton confessed to an undercover police officer that he killed 49 women and wanted to commit one more murder to make it an even 50, a B.C. court heard on Monday.

Jurors were told that the interview will be played before court.

Pickton also allegedly told the undercover officer who posed as a cellmate in Surrey, B.C., that he made his own grave by being "sloppy."

• Warning: Some readers might find details to follow in this story disturbing.

Crown counsel Derrill Prevett told jurors in his opening statement on Monday that police found the skulls of Sereena Abotsway and Andrea Joesbury stuffed inside plastic pails when they searched Pickton's pig farm.

The prosecutor also told the jury that police found the two five-gallon pails with human heads inside two freezers when they were using a search warrant for firearms.

Police had to call in the missing women's task force and get another search warrant before they could launch an extensive search of the property.

In laying out its case, the Crown also said:

• The heads had been cut in half with a saw and the women's hands and feet had been stuffed inside their skulls.
• Joesbury and Abotsway are among six women whom police say were allegedly killed by Pickton, a 57-year-old pig farmer from suburban Port Coquitlam, B.C.
• In the crown's opening statement, Previtt told the jury that DNA analysis had identified the remains of each of the six women Pickton is accused of killing in this trial.
• The remains were found either inside Pickton's trailer or in the ground nearby.
• The search of Pickton's mobile home also found a tote bag that contained syringes and an asthma inhaler belonging to Abotsway.
• In the garbage below Pickton's window, police say they found another four inhalers dispensed in Abotsway's name.
• Swabs taken of blood-stained clothing in the trailer also matched the DNA profile of Mona Wilson, another woman accused of being killed, the prosecutor said.

• Wilson's remains were found in a bag at the bottom of a garbage can.

• In a laundry room of Pickton's trailer, a revolver was found in a zippered gun case. Its barrel was covered in plastic wrap, had an elastic band wrapped around it and had a sexual device fitted over it. The revolver had one spent casing and five other rounds. Forensic evidence detected DNA from both Pickton and Wilson on the revolver.

• Wolfe's lower jawbone and teeth were found in the ground in trough beside the slaughterhouse.

Authorities also found running shoes and a cross that belonged to Wilson in Pickton's trailer, the prosecutor said.

A number of bones mixed with debris and manure were found in the farm's slaughterhouse in July 2002, court heard. A total of 14 human hand bones were found in the area, including a bone from Georgina Papin's hand.

Prevett said three teeth found during the excavation of the ground matched the DNA of Marnie Frey.

Additional human bones found near the slaughterhouse matched no one identified as missing in the women's task force, he said.

"These murders of these six women were the work of one man, the accused, Robert William Pickton,'' Prevett said in his statement.

"He had the expertise and equipment for the task. He had the means of transportation available and the means for the disposal of their remains.''

Defence statements

In its opening statement, the defence team told the jury they will be vigorously refuting the Crown's case.

Pickton did not kill nor participate in the murders of the six women, the defence team told the jury.

The defence will be contesting what the Crown suggests are the facts in this case, court heard on Monday.

"The picture that Mr. Prevett has painted to you is not a full picture. It is the Crown's contention they can prove those facts but at this stage it is only a contention that the Crown can prove these facts," lead defence lawyer Peter Ritchie told the jurors.

He also told jurors they were not given the full picture of the conversation Pickton had with the undercover officer. He suggested they pay close attention to that conversation and his client's formal interview with police.

"Pay particularly close attention to the evidence relating to his intellectual competence and close attention to his level of understanding when you watch the videotapes when you listen to them, pay close attention to what Mr. Pickton says and the manner in which is expresses himself," Ritchie said.

He also cautioned them to watch where Pickton's DNA appears and where the DNA of others exists.

The first witness

The first witness told jurors the case posed some unique challenges in the early going.

RCMP Insp. Don Adam said Vancouver Police had launched Project Amelia to investigate the disappearances of 10 women and in 1999 found nine had simply relocated and weren't missing at all.

"So Project Amelia believed they (the disappearances) had stopped,'' Adam testified.

He said without bodies or evidence, police had a hard time knowing how to proceed. Investigators also weren't helped by an inadequate DNA databank.

But in the summer of 2001, after the RCMP had joined the Vancouver force to form Project Evenhanded, Adam said he was asked by the Crown if the women were simply missing or were the victims of homicide.

Adam said this number of missing women didn't exist in other jurisdictions.

"I concluded they were murder victims,'' he testified.

Adam's testimony will continue on Tuesday.

Families turn up for trial

Earlier on Monday, Justice James Williams ruled the family members of the six women alleged to have been killed by Pickton won't be excluded from the opening arguments.

Williams' first order of business was to ask both Crown and defence counsel to weigh in on the fact that the family members summoned as witnesses are technically to be excluded from trial until their testimony.

The subpoenas prevent them from sitting in the courtroom until they have testified, lest they hear testimony that could influence their own.

Williams said that while witnesses will be asked to leave court when evidence is controversial, it will not be necessary to exclude families "for purely formulaic reasons."

He intends to decide later whether the witnesses will be excluded from the entire trial.

The judge also warned jurors that evidence in the trial will likely be distressing but that they must be careful to stay impartial.

"Some of the evidence to which you will be exposed to during the trial will be shocking and is likely to be upsetting. I must ask each of you to deal with that the best you can," Williams said as the jury trial began.

"It may arouse feelings of revulsion and hostility that can overwhelm the objective and impartial approach that jurors are expected to bring to their task.

"You should be aware of that possibility and ensure it does not happen to you," he told the seven men and five women.

Williams also told the jury panel they may consider only evidence they hear and see in the courtroom. He told the jurors to avoid all media coverage of the case and not to discuss the case with anyone.

The judge also issued a warning to the media and read out the publication bans issued during the Pickton legal process.

"It is not my intention to stand by and simply see the court orders flouted. I believe that members of the media will approach this matter responsibly," said Williams.

In his opening address to the jurors, the judge also outlined court procedure and explained terms that will come up during the trial.

Pickton in court

On Monday morning, Pickton arrived at the New Westminster, B.C. courthouse. He was dressed in white running shoes, black pants and a grey, short-sleeved shirt. He had a white pad for taking notes, a green binder and a sweatshirt. While Pickton bowed to the judge upon entering, he didn't glance at the jurors.

Pickton's family didn't attend court.

"No, they weren't there today, and they haven't been there since this whole thing got started five years ago," author Stevie Cameron told Â鶹´«Ã½net.

"There's always been two seats set aside for them at these court processes, and to my knowledge, they've never been there. Nobody has ever been there to support him," she said, referring to Robert's brother Dave and sister Linda.

Pickton faces first-degree murder charges in the slayings of six women, who are Marnie Frey, Sereena Abotsway, Georgina Papin, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Wolfe and Mona Wilson.

Pickton also stands accused in the murders of 20 other women but no trial date has been set on those charges.

He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. None of the allegations has been proven in court.

The trial, which is on course to be one of the largest, longest, and most expensive trials in Canadian history, has drawn unprecedented international attention.

Watching from the wings will be about 350 reporters, photographers and technical media representatives -- including correspondents from the British Press Association, Court TV, The Economist, Germany-based ARD television, BBC radio and TV, The Washington Post and The New York Times -- who have been accredited to report on the trial.

With files from Â鶹´«Ã½ and The Canadian Press