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Pickton charges stayed

Twenty first-degree murder charges against Robert Pickton were formally stayed Wednesday, ensuring the serial killer won’t stand trial for the deaths of most of the women whose remains were found on his sprawling farm.

VANCOUVER — Twenty first-degree murder charges against Robert Pickton were formally stayed Wednesday, ensuring the serial killer won’t stand trial for the deaths of most of the women whose remains were found on his sprawling farm.

The controversial decision to leave a question mark over the women’s deaths ends the lengthy criminal case against Pickton and could set the stage for the public to find out why so many sex workers vanished from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Pickton once bragged to an undercover officer that he killed a total of 49 women.

But the Crown has said it won’t pursue any more criminal proceedings against Pickton — not the 20 affected by Wednesday’s decision and not any others who may be linked to him in the future.

“The Crown had to carefully assess whether it was in the public interest to proceed on the remaining 20 counts, and the (Criminal Justice) Branch concluded it was not,” Neil MacKenzie, a spokesman for the Crown, said outside court Wednesday.

That wasn’t good enough for Lillian Beaudoin, whose sister Diane Rock is among the women whose cases were stayed.

“We feel that we’ve been failed by the justice system,” Beaudoin said.