The trial of Robert Pickton entered a new phase Thursday, away from expert forensics witnesses and on to personal details about the victims and the final weeks of their lives.

Incidents from the women's lives were read into the court record — information taken from files from various government agencies and friends of the six women Pickton is accused of killing.

Pickton has been charged in the deaths of Sereena Abotsway, Andrea Joesbury, Mona Wilson, Marnie Frey, Georgina Papin and Brenda Wolfe, all women who went missing from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

Pickton is accused of killing another 20 women and will face a second trial later.

The jury heard how one of the women Pickton is accused of killing, Brenda Wolfe, spent her welfare cheque on Christmas presents for her children and asked for more money to buy "bread and milk."

Crown prosecutor John Ahern read entries concerning another victim, Georgina Papin. Official papers detailed requests for money to buy food, a washer and dryer, as well as a government document showing her four children had been taken into care.

Sereena Abotsway abruptly stopped picking up her benefit cheques after regularly showing up three times a week for two years to get them, the jury heard.

Pickton, who sat in the prisoner's box, followed along with a transcript of those submissions, his pen following each word on the page.

The evidence read into the record — a 24-page document of admission — is a collection of facts agreed to by the prosecution and defence. It cut as much as six weeks from the trial and whittles the number of witnesses in this section of the trial from dozens to four.

Witness from drop-in centre testifies

In the afternoon, the jury heard from the first of the four witnesses —  a woman who ran a drop-in centre for sex-trade workers.

Elaine Allan, who worked at WISH (Women's Information Safe House) between 1998 and 2001, said she knew five of the six women, all except Marnie Frey.

Allan said the women would come into the shelter for a hot meal almost every night, and spend a few hours relaxing, talking to volunteers and watching television.

She told the jury Mona Wilson supported her common-law husband by working the street; that Serena Abotsway carried the needles for her drugs in her shirt pocket and that Andrea Joesbury was quieter than most.

She was a "really composed young woman and she handled her drugs quite well," said Wilson. "She was young and beautiful and sweet and innocent. It's a tough story."

Wilson described Papin as "outgoing, friendly, gregarious," and recalled Abotsway as a regular at the centre who always had track marks on the veins of her arms and legs.

One of the biggest murder cases in Canadian history, the trial started in January. Justice James Williams has told the jury the trial could last as long as a year.

With files from the Canadian Press