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Robert Pickton’s victim’s families reach compensation settlement

Pig farmer Robert Pickton was convicted of six murders in 2007. Investigators have said the remains or the DNA of 33 women were found on his farm in Port Coquitlam.

The families of some of serial killer Robert (Willie) Pickton's victims will finally receive some financial compensation for the shoddy police investigation into the women's disappearances and deaths.

Vancouver lawyer Jason Gratl, representing 13 plaintiffs, said 11 have agreed to a settlement of $50,000 for each of the victims' children, The Canadian Press reported Monday.

A 12th plaintiff, who because he is not yet 18 must have the settlement vetted by his public guardian, is expected to respond shortly, Gratl said.

The final payout could reach millions of dollars, depending on eligibility. And the families are still suing Pickton and his grown siblings.

The group launched a lawsuit against the City of Vancouver, responsible for Vancouver police, the federal government, which oversees the RCMP, and the B.C. government last May.

[ Related: Families of Robert Pickton’s victims suing police and murderer’s siblings ]

The suit alleged police and the Crown failed to warn that someone was preying on vulnerable women on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Pickton lured the women, many of them drug-addicted prostitutes, to his suburban pig farm where he killed them, then cut up and destroyed the bodies.

Pickton was arrested in 2002 and eventually charged with more than two dozen first-degree murder counts after raids on his Port Coquitlam property turned up physical and DNA evidence that several women reported missing over the years had been at the farm.

Pickton later confided to an undercover officer planted in his cell that he had killed 49 women. However, lengthy pre-trial hearings saw the number of counts reduced to six. Pickton was convicted of second-degree murder for all of them in 2007 and sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years – the same as for first-degree murder.

Pickton is officially suspected in another 20 cases but the Crown controversially decided not to proceed with them.

The case spawned a public inquiry that found serious problems with the way Vancouver police and the RCMP dealt with reports about women, most of them aboriginal, disappearing from the Downtown East Side. Families were often told the women probably had left town or, being troubled, simply weren't communicating.

The inquiry, headed by former judge and B.C. attorney general Wally Oppal, recommended that family members be compensated but the suit was filed when the government failed to follow through.

[ Related: Robert Pickton's brother denies any knowledge of serial killer's crimes ]

Gratl told CP the families are generally pleased with the settlement.

"It's giving the children of missing women a leg up to try, in some small measure, to give them a chance to improve their lives, improve their prospects in the future," he said. "It was something worth doing.''

The total size of the settlement is unclear. CP noted a lawyer for the B.C. government told a judge in January that more than 90 children could qualify for compensation, and it's also not clear whether other relatives might be eligible.

While claims against the three levels of government appear to be largely settled, the families were also suing Pickton himself, his brother David and sister Lynda.

Gratl told Yahoo! Canada News that those claims have not been resolved and the cases against the Pickton family will proceed.