A videotaped interview played at Robert William Pickton's murder trial Tuesday shows the accused laughing at an RCMP officer's suggestion that he's linked to Vancouver's missing women's case.

Interviewing Pickton in February 2002, RCMP Sgt. Bill Fordy told Pickton he faced two murder charges, and that he was being investigated on the disappearance of 50 more women missing from Vancouver.

Robert Pickton is on trial, accused of killing (clockwise from top left) Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Marnie Frey, Georgina Papin and Brenda Wolfe.

When asked what he thought of that, Pickton laughed and called it "hogwash," and said he was being set up.

However, a few minutes later in the interview, he told Fordy "I'm a bad dude."

He also told Fordy that he was just a "plain working guy. That's all I am. I'm a pig man. That's all I am."

Fordy's interrogation technique involved getting Pickton to talk about his personal life, his family and his friends.

He told the officer that he was close to his mother, who died of cancer in 1979, and that he was engaged to an American woman for a short time in 1974.

He also talked about the things he values in people — honesty and hard work — and he said he can't stand people who steal.

This is only the beginning of what was a lengthy interrogation, so this presentation of evidence is expected to last for several days.

Defence lawyers have asked the jury to do more than just listen to the tapes, but to pay attention to Pickton's intellectual capacity while he speaks.

Pickton, 57, is being tried on six counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of six women from the city's Downtown Eastside. He also faces another 20 first-degree murder charges involving missing women, which will be dealt with at a separate trial.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges, none of which have been proven in court.

Crown outlined grisly details of its case on Monday

The trial opened Monday with Crown prosecutor Derrill Prevett telling the jury that Pickton admitted he had killed 49 women and wanted to make it an even 50.

The Crown intends to prove that Pickton took the women to his pig farm in suburban Port Coquitlam, where he killed them, butchered their remains and then disposed of them, Prevett told the B.C. Supreme Court jury on Monday.

Prevett said police found personal belongings and body parts of the missing women during a massive search of the farm, including the skulls, hands and partial feet of three of the women — Sereena Abotsway, Andrea Joesbury and Mona Wilson.

He said numerous human hand bones were also found at the farm, including one identified as that of Georgina Papin, another of the six alleged victims. A tooth was also discovered, and identified as that of Marnie Frey, who had also gone missing.

All six — Abotsway, Joesbury, Wilson, Papin, Frey and Brenda Wolfe — were drug-addicted sex-trade workers who disappeared from the streets of Canada's poorest neighbourhood between 1997 and 2001.

Before the Crown began its presentation, Justice James Williams had warned the jury that some of the evidence would be shocking and upsetting.

"Where evidence is particularly distressing, there is a concern that it may arise feelings of revulsion and hostility, and that can overwhelm the objective and impartial approach jurors are expected to bring to their task. You should be aware of that possibility and make sure it does not happen to you."

Williams, who is presiding over the case, also instructed the jury to ignore all news coverage, and rely only on the evidence.

The 26 women — the first vanishing in 1995 — are among more than 60 listed as missing from the Downtown Eastside over a period stretching back to the late 1970s. What happened to the others is unknown.

Most were prostitutes and drug addicts, which limited the chances of a public outcry at their disappearances, as well as an early police response, even though some relatives and local activists had been pressing for action since the early 1990s.

The trial is expected to last about a year.