Mr. Big stings are inadmissible by default. Here's why Dean Penney's was allowed at trial | CBC News

Penney received a life sentence after being convicted of 1st-degree murder

In a murder case with no body and very little physical evidence, Dean Penney's admissions to an undercover RCMP officer posing as a crime boss were everything.

Penney confessed twice to killing his estranged wife, Jennifer Hillier-Penney, and disposing of her body in the ocean near his cabin. The videos were damning — some jurors appeared shaken as family members wept in the courtroom.

But it was never guaranteed the jury would hear the videotaped confessions.

As Dean Penney gets life sentence, sister says she's 'lost' without Jennifer Hillier-Penney

The RCMP used a covert tactic known as a Mr. Big sting, in which police get close to a suspect and invite them into a fictitious criminal organization. The operation ends in an interview with the head of the organization, who attempts to elicit a confession.

Mr. Big stings are presumptively inadmissible in Canadian law. Before a trial begins, the Crown must establish the probative value — how the confessions help establish the truth of an allegation — outweighs the prejudicial effect of the operation.

Justice Vikas Khaladkar published his pre-trial decision on Wednesday, showing why he allowed the confessions to be played for the jury.

The rules on Mr. Big stings were largely established by the Supreme Court of Canada in the 2014 case of a Newfoundland man accused of killing his daughters near Gander.

The top court found the RCMP ran afoul of Nelson Hart's rights on several fronts in that investigation, resulting in a framework for how Mr. Big operations should be handled by courts in the future.

Khaladkar said he had to consider seven aspects of how the confession was obtained.

"On its face, that is a lengthy period," Khaladkar wrote. "However, the evidence presented explains much of the delay."