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A 58-year-old Canadian pig farmer is facing life in prison after being convicted of murdering six women - a fraction of the total number he is thought to have killed.

Guilty...Robert 'Willie' PicktonRobert "Willie" Pickton was given an automatic life sentence when a jury in British Columbia found him guilty of murder.

He still faces murder charges for the deaths of 20 more women, most of them prostitutes and drug addicts from a seedy Vancouver neighborhood.

If convicted on all those charges, he would become Canada's most prolific serial killer.

Police are still investigating the cases of almost 40 other missing women.

The remains of the six women he was convicted of killing were found on Pickton's farm, but he denied he was responsible for their deaths.

Pickton listened to the verdict with his head bowed and later smirked at one point. He had been charged with first-degree murder in the six killings, but the jury convicted him on a lesser charge of second-degree murder, which means they did not believe the killings were planned.

Two sisters of victim Georgina Papin screamed "No!" when the jury foreman first got up and said "not guilty" on first-degree murder. But they later said they were pleased he was convicted on the second-degree charge.

Police search Pickton's farm in 2002Two jurors, both women, wiped tears from their eyes while the verdicts were read. The jury foreman glared at Pickton as the verdicts were read back by a court official.

During his trial, a prosecution witness, Andrew Bellwood, said Pickton told him how he strangled his victims and fed their remains to his pigs.

Health officials once issued a tainted meat warning to neighbours who might have bought pork from Pickton's farm, concerned the meat might have contained human remains.

The jury of seven men and five women took 10 days to reach a verdict.

Pickton was convicted of murdering Mona Wilson, Sereena Abotsway, Marnie Frey, Brenda Wolfe, Andrea Joesbury as well as Papin.

The victims all came from Vancouver's Eastside quarter, considered the worst ghetto in Canada. Drugs are sold openly, a short distance from the Vancouver police headquarters.