NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. -- Accused serial killer Robert Pickton faces one less murder count after a judge ruled he cannot be tried on a charge of killing an unidentified Jane Doe.

"I find that in the circumstances of this case, the count as drawn fails to meet the minimal requirement set out in Section 581 of the Criminal Code. Accordingly, it must be quashed," Justice James Williams ruled yesterday.

Pickton was charged with 27 counts of first-degree murder involving women -- most of them drug-addicted sex-trade workers -- who disappeared over a stretch of years from Vancouver's seedy Downtown Eastside.

Pickton has been in custody for four years. He pleaded not guilty on the 26 named victims on Jan. 30 but refused to enter a plea on the Jane Doe count. The court registered a not-guilty plea on his behalf.

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