New Westminster, British Columbia ? Years after their loved ones disappeared from the seedy streets of Vancouver’s red-light district, families learned some of the gruesome details of how the women allegedly were killed.

Some relatives fled the courtroom; others stayed, but sat in tears as prosecutors detailed the case against Robert Pickton.

Pickton, a 56-year-old pig farmer, showed no emotion during Monday’s session. Clean-shaven with a bald crown and shoulder-length hair, he sat in a specially built defendant’s box surrounded by bulletproof glass.

Arrested five years ago, Pickton has been charged with killing 26 women and has pleaded not guilty to the six counts covered at the first trial. The other 20 counts will be heard at a later trial.

Prosecutor Derrill Prevett stunned the courtroom by saying Pickton told investigators, including an undercover officer planted in his jail cell, that he had slain 49 women.

“I was going to do one more and make it an even 50,” Prevett quoted Pickton as telling investigators. “I made my own grave by being sloppy.”

Pickton told one officer that he would be “nailed to the cross” and went on to describe himself as a mass murderer who deserved to be on death row, Prevett said.

Defense lawyer Peter Ritchie told jurors that Pickton did not kill or participate in the murders of the six women covered in the first trial. If convicted, Pickton faces life in prison. Canada abolished the death penalty in 1976.

Ritchie asked the jury to pay close attention to Pickton’s demeanor in the videotapes with his interrogators, in particular his level of sophistication. He asked the jury to listen closely to details regarding Pickton’s relationship with his brother, David.

Rick Frey Jr., left, and his mother Charlotte talk to reporters Monday outside Supreme Court in New Westminster, British Columbia. Rick is the brother and Charlotte is the mother of Marnie Frey, one of six women from Vancouver's downtown eastside that Robert Pickton is accused of murdering.

The brothers reared pigs on the family’s 17-acre farm outside Vancouver, where investigators say the Picktons threw drunken raves with prostitutes and drugs. After Robert Pickton’s arrest in February 2002, health officials issued a tainted meat advisory to neighbors who may have bought pork from his farm, concerned that it may have contained human remains.

Before opening arguments, British Columbia Supreme Court Justice James Williams warned the seven male and five female jurors that some of the evidence and witness testimony would be horrific.

“Some of the evidence to which you will be exposed to during the trial will be shocking and is likely to be upsetting. I must ask each of you to deal with that the best you can,” he said.

As some of the initial details were described later, some relatives of the victims cried and left the courtroom. Some family members of victim Marnie Frey fled when prosecutors said the jawbone and several teeth later identified as hers were discovered on the farm. Her brother, Rick Frey Jr., remained but sat in tears.

Prevett said the government would prove that Pickton murdered six women, butchered their remains and then disposed of them. He told the jury that as a successful pig farmer, Pickton had the expertise, equipment and means to dispose of the victims’ remains.