Witness claims Pickton's brother threatened his life

A key Crown witness in the murder trial of Robert William Pickton in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminstertestified Wednesday that the accused killer's brother threatened his life.

Scott Chubb, who first led police to Pickton's farm, on a tip about illegal firearms, said he took the threat seriously, and asked police to put him in the witness protection program.

Chubb's comments came as defence lawyer Peter Ritchie tried to connect Pickton's brother Dave to the Hells Angels.

Ritchie suggested Dave Pickton not only knew several members of the club, but wore clothing proclaiming his support for the Hells Angels. Chubb refused, however,to admit he knew anything about that, and claimed he didn't remember talking to police about the Angels.

That lead Ritchie to a police officer's notes about a phone call Chubb made about a year and a half after Robert Pickton's arrest.

Chubb is quoted as saying he'd received a call from a Vancouver Hells Angel, who hadwarned that if Chubb appeared at Pickton's court case he was dead.

Chubb insisted he didn't remember the call, saying it was "ridiculous." But he did remember a call from Dave Pickton, a day or two after RobertPickton was arrested.

Dave "threatened me," he testified. "He phoned me and told me if Willy was going to go down, then everybody else was going to go down."

Chub told the court that police moved his family shortly after because of the threat.

Ritchie then suggested Chubb received more than $13,000 from police in the first month after he and his family were moved. Ritchie said that despite the alleged threat,Chubbstill returned to the Lower Mainland to buy drugs.

Robert Pickton is facing 26 counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of women from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Six of the charges are being dealt with at the current trial. The other 20 charges are expected to be dealt with at a subsequent trial.