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Robert Pickton re-enacted how he strangled prostitutes after having sexual intercourse with them and recounted how he fed parts of their bodies to pigs on his farm during a conversation in 1999, a witness at the first-degree-murder trial testified yesterday.

In some of the most graphic evidence since the sensational trial began six months ago, Andrew Bellwood told the court he thought Mr. Pickton was acting as if he was in a play when he demonstrated how he murdered women that he had picked up from East Hastings Street in Vancouver.

Mr. Pickton kneeled on his bed, "proceeding to stroke hair of a woman on a head that wasn't there, reaching ahead and pretending to pull a hand behind someone's back," Mr. Bellwood said.

As Mr. Bellwood spoke in court, Mr. Pickton was bent over a notepad on his lap, appearing to be listening to the testimony but without looking at anyone in the room. Jury members, some appearing mesmerized by the account, were closely scrutinizing the face of the witness. None of the members of the victims' families was in the public gallery during the testimony.

Mr. Bellwood, 37, told the court he was "a binge addict" in 1999 who could go for months without using drugs, but then would spend up to $5,000 on a three- or four-day crack cocaine binge.

However, in marked contrast to other drug addicts who have testified during the trial, Mr. Bellwood looked healthy, tanned and fit. He sat in the witness box with his head held high and his shoulders back, talking in a relaxed manner about his drug habit, his work and his six weeks on the Pickton farm, from early February, 1999, to March 14, 1999. He responded directly — without hesitation or equivocations — to questions from prosecutor Geoff Baragar.

Mr. Bellwood told the court he had not taken any drugs on the day in March, 1999, that Mr. Pickton told him about killing women.

The conversation took place as Mr. Bellwood was sitting in Mr. Pickton's bedroom with Mr. Pickton, watching TV in the early evening. Mr. Bellwood was seated on a chair and Mr. Pickton was on his bed. No one else was in the room.

Mr. Pickton suggested they go downtown to pick up a prostitute. Mr. Bellwood recalled he said no, he did not want to get a prostitute.

"Mr. Pickton kept saying, let's go get a prostitute, I'll give you a couple hundred bucks."

Mr. Pickton then told him what he does with the prostitutes, Mr. Bellwood said.

Mr. Pickton reached underneath his mattress and pulled out a leather belt, a set of chrome metal handcuffs, which Mr. Bellwood thought looked like police handcuffs, and a piece of wire that looked to Mr. Bellwood like piano wire.

Mr. Pickton indicated with motions that he would have sexual intercourse with the prostitutes "doggy style," Mr. Bellwood said.

Later, Mr. Bellwood explained to the jury Mr. Pickton meant he would place the women on their stomachs and have intercourse from behind, with the woman facing the bed.

Mr. Pickton preferred to sodomize the women, Mr. Bellwood told the court.

It was almost as if there was a woman on the bed as Mr. Pickton was telling the story, he said. "It was pretty much, kind of like a play. Telling me he reaches for their hand, slides it behind their back and slowly puts on the handcuffs, stroking their hair, telling them everything is going to be okay, everything is all over now," Mr. Bellwood said.

"From there, he got handcuffs on them. He would strangle them. Either with the belt or the piece of wire."

Mr. Bellwood recalled that Mr. Pickton said he would take the women to the barn, bleed them, gut them and hang them in the slaughterhouse. "He commented on how much they would bleed," Mr. Bellwood said.

Mr. Pickton also remarked on how much of the carcass a pig will eat, Mr. Bellwood said. Whatever the pigs did not eat would end up in 45-gallon drums with waste from his pig-slaughtering business, he said.

Mr. Bellwood recalled that Mr. Pickton said luring women to his farm would sometimes be a tough thing to do.

"He would have to offer them some heroin or some cocaine, and kind of lure them in with their drug of choice. From there, normally [he would] have to offer a little bit more money," he said. A bit of conning was required to try persuading the woman to come back, he said.

Mr. Pickton is on trial for the murder of six drug-addicted prostitutes. He has been charged with the murder of 20 additional women. A court date for a second trial has not yet been set. Mr. Bellwood is expected to continue testifying Tuesday.