VOA常速英语2007年-Canada's Accused Serial Killer Found Guilty of

By Craig McCulloch
Vancouver
10 December 2007

A pig farmer who is believed to be Canada's worst serial¹ killer² was found guilty Sunday of second degree murder in the death of six women. This trial in a suburban³ Vancouver court involved the first six of 26 murders Robert "Willie" Pickton is being charged with. Craig McCulloch reports for VOA from Vancouver.

The jury took nine days to find Pickton guilty on six counts of second-degree murder. The 58 year-old pig farmer showed no emotion or reaction when the verdict was read out in court.

Pickton was originally charged with six counts of first-degree murder. He still faces an additional trial on 20 more counts of murder. The second trial is scheduled to get under way January 17.

Despite being convicted of second rather than first-degree murder, prosecution⁴ spokesperson Stan Lowe says he is satisfied with the verdict.

"We view today's verdicts as a validation⁵ or confirmation⁶ of our assessment⁷ of the evidence in this case," he said. "Mr. Pickton murdered these women, that is what the jury has found. We are left with a matter of satisfaction in how we presented our case."

Lowe says the primary role of the prosecution in British Columbia is to ensure a fair trial and to abandon any sense of wining and losing.

How long Pickton will have to serve before being eligible⁸ for parole will be decided⁹ on Tuesday after impact statements from the victims' families are read out in court. The automatic verdict in a case such as this one is a life sentence.

Lead defense¹⁰ attorney Peter Ritchie says he does not know whether his client will file an appeal. He says the defense had a challenge going through the piles of evidence.

"There were enormous difficulties from the point of view of the defense trying to understand this case because of the logistics involved," he said. "Don't forget we had well over a million pieces of papers we had to digest here."

The trial started in January and heard from over 100 witnesses and involved over 1.25 million pieces of paper.

All of the victims were women from Vancouver's impoverished¹¹ downtown east side.

Rick Frey's daughter Marnie is one of the women Pickton was found guilty of killing¹². He says he hopes the second degree murder conviction will help bring forward more information for the second trial.

"I'm happy for myself. I am also very happy that now we can move on for a little bit of answers to be coming out of the next trial for the next 20," he said. "So, it's very important that we had six counts of guilty."

Pickton lured¹³ the victims to his farm in the Vancouver suburb of Port Coquitlam with money and drugs, killed them, cut up the bodies and disposed of the remains¹⁴ using the pigs and a rendering¹⁵ plant.

Investigators¹⁶ found many human remains buried on his farm.

1 serial   

n.连本影片，连本电视节目；adj.连续的

参考例句：

• A new serial is starting on television tonight.今晚电视开播一部新的电视连续剧。
• Can you account for the serial failures in our experiment?你能解释我们实验屡屡失败的原因吗？

2 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

3 suburban   

adj.城郊的，在郊区的

参考例句：

• Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
• There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。

4 prosecution   

n.起诉，告发，检举，执行，经营

参考例句：

• The Smiths brought a prosecution against the organizers.史密斯家对组织者们提出起诉。
• He attempts to rebut the assertion made by the prosecution witness.他试图反驳原告方证人所作的断言。

5 validation   

n.确认

参考例句：

• If the countdown timer ever hits zero, do your validation processing. 处理这种情况的方法是在输入的同时使用递减计时器，每次击键重新计时。如果递减计时器变为零，就开始验证。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Although the validation control is a very widespread idiom, most such controls can be improved. 虽然确认控件是非常广泛的习惯用法，但还有很多有待改进的地方。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

6 confirmation   

n.证实，确认，批准

参考例句：

• We are waiting for confirmation of the news.我们正在等待证实那个消息。
• We need confirmation in writing before we can send your order out.给你们发送订购的货物之前，我们需要书面确认。

7 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

8 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。

9 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

10 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

11 impoverished   

adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化

参考例句：

• the impoverished areas of the city 这个城市的贫民区
• They were impoverished by a prolonged spell of unemployment. 他们因长期失业而一贫如洗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

13 lured   

吸引，引诱（lure的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The child was lured into a car but managed to escape. 那小孩被诱骗上了车，但又设法逃掉了。
• Lured by the lust of gold,the pioneers pushed onward. 开拓者在黄金的诱惑下，继续奋力向前。

14 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

15 rendering   

n.表现，描写

参考例句：

• She gave a splendid rendering of Beethoven's piano sonata.她精彩地演奏了贝多芬的钢琴奏鸣曲。
• His narrative is a super rendering of dialect speech and idiom.他的叙述是方言和土语最成功的运用。

16 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》