The man accused of killing a 12-year-old British Columbia girl more than 40 years ago has been found guilty of first-degree murder.

Garry Handlen was found guilty after an 11-week trial.

Twelve-year-old Monica Jack disappeared in May 1978 while riding her bike along a highway in Merritt. Her remains were found 17 years later.

Handlen was the part of a RCMP sting operation in 2014, and he told an undercover officer that he sexually assaulted and strangled Jack after abducting her.

His defence team maintained the confession was coerced.

The Crown’s lawyer though said the man had no motivation to confess to a crime he didn’t commit, and that Handlen felt relief at having “unburdened himself from a secret that he’d carried for decades.”

 

-With files from the Canadian Press