Hart confessed on tape to killing twins, Crown says

The Crown says it has a videotape of Nelson Hart confessing he killedhis twin daughters in a central Newfoundland lake in 2002, a jury heard as testimony began in his trial Tuesday.

Crown prosecutor Mark Linehan said in his opening statement that RCMP officers elicited the confession which Hart's lawyer says was made under intimidation during an elaborate undercover operation.

Hart, 38,faces two counts of first-degree murder, in the August 2002 drownings of his twin three-year-old daughters, Krista and Karen Hart. He is being tried in Newfoundland Supreme Court in Gander, where he lives.

In the sting operation, Linehan told the court, undercover officers posing as civilians approached Hart in 2004, and said they were part of a large criminal organization.

Linehan said Hart was paid $15,000 for various tasks, although nothing he did was actually illegal.

The operation escalated when Hart was offered $25,000 for a particular job, although he was told he had to meet a man called "the big boss" in Montreal first.

That meeting was videotaped by the RCMP, Linehan said.

The "big boss" was actually another undercover officer, who wanted to know what happened to Hart's daughters when they died.

Linehan said Hart stuck to a story he told police: that he had had an epileptic seizure and blacked out when the girls fell into Gander Lake.

When pressed, Linehan said, Hart confessed to the supposed crime boss that he had killed the girls, because he did not want social services officials to give the girls to his brother.

Defence lawyer Derek Hogan said Hart's taped confession was made to impress men that Hart assumed were criminals.

Hogan said Hartfelt intimidated by the men, and made the confession because he thought that was what they wanted to hear.

Hogan told the court that Hart feared for his life.

Hart was charged in 2005, three years after the girls died. One of the girls, Karen, was found dead in the water, while Krista was unconscious. She later died in hospital.

Hart's trial is expected to last as long as six weeks.