The defence in Robert William Pickton's murder trial suggested on Wednesday that his client's hand gestures indicated the number of charges pending against him, not a confession of how many murders he had committed. 

Peter Ritchie made the contention during the second day of cross-examining an undercover RCMP officer planted in Pickton's cell after his arrest in February 2002.

'In my mind, we're talking about the topic at hand, which is murders.' —Undercover RCMP officer

On Tuesday, the jury in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster watched a videotaped jail cell conversation between the officer and Pickton, in which the Port Coquitlam pig farmer makes gestures with one hand to five fingers, and then zero.

Pickton made the gestures following the officer's concocted story over his own attempted murder charges, to which Pickton replied, "But you're nothing like mine." 

But Ritchie said: "You think he's admitting to the murder of 50, but I'm suggesting to you he's just talking about the number of charges that are pending."

The undercover officer, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, disagreed with Ritchie's assessment.

"In my mind, we're talking about the topic at hand, which is murders," the officer said.

"You take it that he's confessing to murdering people?" Ritchie asked.

"Yes, I do," the officer replied.

Pickton is being tried on six of the 26 charges of first-degree murder in the deaths of missing women from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, with a second trial to be held later. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Pickton only bragging: defence

Ritchie also accused the undercover officer of encouraging Pickton to talk about subjects that would lead him to make self-incriminating remarks.

But the officer said he only wanted to keep the conversation going and maintain his persona as a violent criminal.

Several times in the conversation, Pickton says he wanted to "make it an even 50," but only reached 49. He also mentions he'll be bigger than the Green River Killer, and wanted to "do another 25 new ones."

Ritchie contended his client was simply bragging to his cellmate.

He argued the officer encouraged Pickton to boast about how he toyed with police, and about how famous he was going to be.

By law, undercover agents can't steer the conversation to encourage incriminating statements, said Donna Turko, a criminal defence lawyer observing the trial for CBC News.

"If a person in a jail cell wants to talk or with minimal prompting, fess up, that's something the court will allow to go before the jury for the jury to consider," Turko said Wednesday.

Later Wednesday, the trial heard from a rookie officer who received a tip from a paid informant about guns on Pickton's Port Coquitlam farm in 2002.

Const. Nathan Wells told the trial that when he got a search warrant, members of the missing women's task force decided to go along because Pickton's name was flagged on their computer database.