Jurors in the trial of a man charged with killing 12-year-old Monica Jack have heard an audio recording of an RCMP undercover operation that focused on the accused, Garry Handlen.
In the recording, Handlen is heard repeatedly apologizing to the “boss” as he is confronted at a bar in Quebec in front of other members of the fictitious crime organization.
In the scenario, the crime boss — an undercover officer — learned a member of the organization had lied about something. That member was confronted and fired.
This scenario was played out in front of Handlen to demonstrate the consequences of lying to the organization.
The supposed boss fired Handlen for saying he’d completed the task of meeting a particular woman in Quebec even though he hadn’t gone there.
“Let me explain,” Handlen is heard saying in a recording at the bar on Oct. 16, 2014.
“I already know the truth, I already know what happened,” says the boss, an undercover officer who testified about his role in the sting.
“I’m sorry,” Handlen says, sounding increasingly rattled at the boss’s angry outburst.
“You lied to my face!” he tells Handlen, who says he’d had a few drinks and hit a deer in the fog on the way to his assigned job.
WATCH: Trial begins for man accused of 1978 murder of B.C. girl
“I wanted to do it,” he says, his voice cracking.
“Everybody, go to your phones, delete his numbers,” the boss tells the other group members, all undercover officers.
“Let that be a lesson to any who need it,” the boss says.
“He’s finished!”
The boss tells the others not to contact Handlen, who is told to turn in his cellphone and the keys to a vehicle.
“The only thing that keeps everything tight is if we all tell the truth,” the boss says.
“Get out of here!” he yells at Handlen.
However, the trial heard that the boss accepted Handlen back into the group a week later after he’d stepped up “for one of the brothers” in another task for the organization.
The crime boss later tells Handlen he would be moving up in the organization and they would do a background check on him.
The jury will review about 90 minutes of recordings that Crown says includes a confession of Handlen admitting to killing Jack, sexually assaulting and strangling her.
Handlen has pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder of Monica Jack on May 6, 1978.
— With files from The Canadian Press
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