Families pained by Canada verdict

Relatives held a prayer service outside the court after the verdict

Relatives of women killed by Canadian Robert Pickton and police investigating their deaths have voiced disappointment at his second-degree murder conviction.

Pickton, 58, was convicted on Sunday of the murders of six women whose remains were found on his Vancouver farm.

However, the jury could not decide if all the killings were pre-meditated and so convicted him of a lesser murder charge, which could allow parole.

Pickton still faces 20 more murder charges for the deaths of women.

Most of the women he is accused of murdering were prostitutes and drug addicts from a seedy Vancouver neighbourhood.

If convicted on all charges, Pickton would be Canada's most prolific serial killer.

On Sunday, he was found guilty of killing Mona Wilson, Sereena Abotsway, Marnie Frey, Brenda Wolfe, Andrea Joesbury and Georgina Papin.

We let these girls and women down in life. We've now let them down in death Bill Fordy, police interrogator Media have lingering doubts

The verdict followed a week of deliberations by the jury, and 10 months of gruesome testimony and evidence.

Under Canadian law a murder conviction leads to an automatic life sentence, but the second rather than first-degree murder verdict means he could technically be eligible for parole in 10 years' time.

"It should have been first degree," Rick Frey, father of Marnie Frey, said. "You don't have six murders over that time and not have first degree."

'Second class citizens'

Bill Fordy, the police officer who questioned Pickton after his arrest, agreed, saying: "We let these girls and women down in life. We've now let them down in death."

Gladys Raddick, who held a prayer ceremony for friends and relatives of those killed, thought the verdict was an insult to the victims' memory.

'Poorest postcode' killer

"I was really disappointed because they were people and I really honestly believe that first-degree murder would have been appropriate," she said.

"To me, they weren't second-class citizens and that is the way the verdict came down - as second-class citizens."

But family members were relieved that there was at least a conviction.

If and when a trial over the 20 other killings takes place will now depend on whether Pickton decides to appeal against this verdict.

Murray Watson, foster brother of one of victims from the second group, told CBC that a further trial was necessary.

"There won't be no closure with the families if we don't have that second trial," he told the state broadcaster.

Parts in freezer

The pig farmer denied killing any of the women, but prosecutors presented thousands of pieces of forensic evidence and showed video of him admitting to police that he was hoping to kill 50 women.

Police raided Pickton's farm in 2002 and found the dismembered remains and personal belongings of the women Pickton was accused of picking up on the streets of Vancouver.

Parts of two of the women's bodies were found in five-gallon buckets in Pickton's freezer, parts of the others were discovered in a dustbin, a pig pen, and buried in manure on the farm.

The 10-month trial heard from almost 130 witnesses, including Lynn Ellingson, who said she once walked in on the pig farmer, who was covered with blood, as Georgina Papin's body hung from a chain in the farm's slaughterhouse.

The BBC's Ian Gunn in Vancouver says that Pickton's lawyers argued that none of the evidence proved that he himself had murdered the women.

But the prosecutor argued that the evidence, while circumstantial, was more than enough to prove that Pickton had been the murderer and the jury eventually agreed.