A jury has been selected for the Robert William Pickton murder trial in New Westminster, B.C., with the Crown and defence agreeing on 12 jurors and two alternates.

The process took just two days. It had been expected to take much longer, with two weeks set aside for jury selection.

An artist's sketch shows Robert William Pickton as he appeared in B.C. Supreme Court on Monday in New Westminster, B.C.
(Jane Wolsak/Canadian Press)

Eleven jurors were selected on the first day on Monday. However, one of the 11 was allowed to quit on Tuesday morning.

The man, who cannot be identified because of a court order, told the B.C. Supreme Court judge that he had reassessed his personal situation overnight.

He said he would suffer significant financial hardship if he was away from his job for any significant length of time.

However, by the end of the day, two more jurors had been selected to bring the total to 12, plus two alternates.

The alternates will be released when the trial starts in January

Justice James Williams has cautioned the jurors that the trial, which is expected to last a year, will not be a "holiday" and that they will spend hours listening to evidence that will be technical, complex and quite distressing.

"I think this trial might expose the juror to something that might be as bad as a horror movie, and you don't have the option of turning off the TV," said the judge.

He also warned the jurors that the Jan. 8 trial date may be delayed by a few weeks, but said that has yet to be determined.

Pickton charged in the deaths of 26 women

Pickton is facing six counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of six women from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside: Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Wolfe, Georgina Papin and Marnie Frey.

Pickton is also charged in the deaths of 20 other women. Those cases will be heard separately, because the judge ruled earlier it would be too complicated and take too long to hear all the cases in one trial.

All of the alleged victims are women who went missing from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside over a period of years, where many of them had worked in the sex trade.

Widespread media coverage since Pickton's arrest had raised concerns about bias, while the prospect of a lengthy trial was also expected to cause many potential jurors to ask to be excused.

Sixty people had been told to show up in court on Tuesday to be questioned by the judge and lawyers. Pickton, 57, watched from the prisoner's box.

There was a publication ban on the specific questions and answers heard in court, as well as a ban on the identity of the jurors.

The jurors will be paid $20 a day for the first two months and after that $100 a day.

With files from the Canadian Press