Inmate Who Killed Robert Pickton Pleads Guilty, Says He Acted for Victims

The man who killed Robert Pickton inside a Quebec prison has admitted to the crime, saying he did it in the name of the women Pickton murdered.

In court Thursday, Martin Charest pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the 2024 death of Pickton at the Port-Cartier maximum security penitentiary. Pickton, one of Canada’s most notorious serial killers, died after being attacked with a broken broom handle in May of last year.

Charest told the judge he acted because Pickton continued to brag about his crimes behind bars, and even claimed he would kill again if released. “I did it for the victims,” he said during the hearing in Sept-Îles, Que.

According to an agreed statement of facts, Charest locked himself in a room with Pickton and struck him twice while guards were unable to intervene. Pickton later died from his injuries.

Pickton was convicted in 2007 of six counts of second-degree murder, though he had confessed to killing 49 women he lured to his pig farm in Port Coquitlam, B.C. His crimes devastated families and communities, particularly in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

For many, Pickton’s death behind bars marked a grim close to one of Canada’s darkest chapters. Charest’s plea Thursday confirmed what had long been suspected—that the motive for the prison killing was tied to lingering anger over Pickton’s lack of remorse and the scale of his crimes.