Man charged with Monica Jack's murder was lying when he confessed, defence says

A defence lawyer for a man charged with murdering a 12-year-old girl in British Columbia says his client lied when he confessed to the crime during a so-called Mr. Big operation.

In final arguments to a B.C. Supreme Court jury, Patrick Angly says Garry Handlen told multiple lies throughout the nearly nine-month undercover operation, not because he was boasting as the Crown has suggested but because "he is a liar."

Angly says Handlen's lies stretched from saying he had been a member of the British army's Special Air Service to saying he smuggled goods across international lines as a scuba diver and studied for a pilot's licence.

Angly says none of that was true but it was in his client's best interest to carry on with his lies and even confess to murder as he felt his dreams in a close-knit organized crime group could be snatched away.

Handlen has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death Monica Jack, who was last seen on May 6, 1978, as she rode her bike in Merritt, B.C.

RCMP undercover officers befriended Handlen in early 2014 in Minden, Ont., and paid him nearly $12,000 to do jobs such as smuggling cigarettes, loan sharking and repossessing vehicles.