Hart appeal will focus on RCMP sting tactics

The lawyer representing a central Newfoundland father sentenced to life in prison for murdering his twin daughters will challenge an RCMP undercover sting when he files an appeal.

A Newfoundland Supreme Court jury found Nelson Hart, 38, guilty on Wednesday of two counts of first-degree murder in the August 2002 drowning deaths of his three-year-old daughters, Karen and Krista Hart.

Derek Hogan, who represented Hart at a month-long trial, said the methods the RCMP used to get a covertly videotaped confession from Hart will be a focus of the appeal he plans to file.

"That's a controversial area of law," said Hogan, who would like to see the country's top court rule on when such confessions cease to be voluntary.

"The Supreme Court of Canada hasn't definitively ruled on it what the criteria should be, whether you should accept this as evidence or not, whether intimidation should be present, implied or otherwise. Should threats be present or otherwise by the police," Hogan said.

The sting that undercover RCMP officers used to get a confession from Hart is sometimes known as "the Mr. Big scenario."

Hart was approached by undercover officers and given assignments. Gradually, he was led to believe he was involved in criminal activities, and eventually was told he was dealing with a large criminal organization based in Montreal.

The operation, which cost about $413,000 to execute, involved about 60 different encounters between Hart and undercover officers all posing as members of the gang.

Hart was paid about $15,000 in cash for his assignments, which involved what Hart thought were illegal dropoffs and pickups of cash.

Confession made in Montreal hotel room

All of the contactsled up to Hart meeting a man he was told was the boss of the criminal gang. Hart was told that the gang boss needed to know if he could trust Hart, and wanted answers to questions about what had happened to Hart's daughters.

At the meeting, held in a Montreal hotel room, Hart confessed to planning and carrying out the murders of his twin daughters. Hart described how, worried he would lose custody of his daughters,he pushed the girls from a wharf at Gander Lake, and then slowly drove away from the scene while pretending to get help.

Hogan told the jury that the confession as well as a videotaped re-enactment of the crime that Hart did for another undercover officer at the scene of the crime was coerced.

Police won't disclose how many times they've used the "Mr. Big" technique over the years, but a source told CBC News it's in the hundreds.

Crown prosecutor Mark Linehan said the evidence presented to the jury showed Hart confessed willingly and without coercion.

"The officers testified in open court. Mr. Hart's counsel ably questioned them, and the jury had the opportunity to listen to them and assess their evidence," Linehan said.

Accused of murder during interrogations

The RCMP'son-the-record interrogations of Hart, which were also presented into evidence, have also sparked a public debate in Newfoundland and Labrador on the ethics of how police question suspects.

"You murdered your two children make no bones about it, you murdered your two children," an RCMP officer told Hart during a formal 2002 interrogation.

"Don't you ever forget that. You just wait. You wait for me to come get you."

'We will do whatever is in our power and use whatever tools we have available to find the truth.' RCMP Cpl. Phil Matthews

Cpl. Phil Matthews, who led the RCMP's investigation, said all of the methods that officers used can be defended.

"We will do whatever is in our power and use whatever tools we have available to find the truth," he said.

"In this particular case, we used all the tools that we had and at the end of the day the truth was told."

The four-month undercover operation, which was launched in February 2005, was organized after formal interrogations of Hart went nowhere.

Hart told undercover officers that he lied to investigators about what happened on the day the girls died, and was able to throw off the police investigation.

Hart wasarrested just days after meeting the supposed crime boss.