B.C. jury should consider if confession details came from police, media: judge

VANCOUVER — A B.C. judge has told jurors they will have to decide whether a man who confessed to killing a 12-year-old girl could have obtained details about the crime from police or media reports.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Austin Cullen is instructing a jury that is expected to start deliberations later today in the trial of Garry Handlen, who confessed to the 1978 murder during a police undercover operation.

Monica Jack was last seen in Merritt while riding her bike and her remains were discovered in the area 17 years later.

Handlen became the subject of a so-called Mr. Big sting in early 2014 and provided an alleged confession recorded on a hidden camera and shown to the jury during the first-degree murder trial.

Defence lawyer Patrick Angly has argued Handlen was provided information about the crime by the RCMP in 1978 when he was interviewed and also by a supposed crime boss asking leading questions.

Angly has said the crime boss was referring to a newspaper article about the crime while trying to extract a confession in 2014, and Handlen could have read some information he parroted back and may also have known details about Jack’s murder from a television documentary.