An Ontario Superior Court judge has thrown out all evidence police gathered during an elaborate “Mr. Big” sting which charged a man for a 1974 murder, ruling their tactics were an abuse of process and breached the man’s Charter rights.

Justice Bruce Glass ruled Friday the Durham Regional Police operation —“Project Fearless,” which at one point involved the dumping of a fake body — produced confessions from Alan Dale Smith so unreliable from you could “drive a Mack truck” through all the holes.

“Working an admission to first-degree murder from a person when the person is functionally detained by police in deprivation of his right to remain silent or pushing him to incriminate himself improperly has a result that cannot be more serious for Mr. Smith,” Glass said.

“The officers in effect pushed the envelope with the use of a corpse to shake loose admissions from (Smith).”

In 2009, after falsely believing he had become involved in a murderous crime ring, Smith gave two widely varying confessions to undercover officers, saying he was responsible for fatally shooting 22-year-old Beverly Smith (no relation) in 1974.

“The confession was not voluntary,” Glass said, noting he did not believe the undercover operatives “set off on a course to be nasty.”

But the judge did rule definitively that officers had used a controversial investigative tool known as the “Mr. Big” sting, something Durham police had earlier denied.

The subterfuge involves convincing the target of an investigation he or she is consorting with criminals, and must confess to a serious crime to gain trust and entry into the criminal group.

The dismissal of all the evidence likely means Smith will soon be a free man. Crown Paul Murray said it was “not a likelihood” the trial will continue, though the matter returns to court July 28 as the Crown decides how to proceed.

Smith was released on condition he return to court next week. He walked out of Oshawa court after 4½ years in jail, flanked by his siblings and lawyers.

“I’m glad to be out and to be with my family,” he said.

It is the second time in six years Smith has walked out of Oshawa court with a major victory. In March 2008, he was charged with second-degree murder in the death based on new evidence from his ex-wife, Linda.

But her version of events kept changing, and on July 31, 2008, the charge was dropped. Emotional at that time, he thanked everyone for their support during the “terrible ordeal.”

Beverly Smith’s family initially attended court for the first portion of Glass’s ruling Friday, but left when he announced the evidence would not be accepted. A visibly upset family member declined to comment.

Smith was killed by a single gunshot to the head on the evening of Dec. 9, 1974. Alan Smith lived across the street from Beverly and her husband at the time of the murder.

In testimony earlier this year, court heard of the elaborate police tactics to convince Smith he was involved in a crime ring.

Project Fearless began in early 2009 by luring Smith in with his favourite pastime, fishing. Police whisked Smith away for the weekend by telling him he had won a weekend fishing package.

Posing as another lucky contest winner, an undercover officer quickly befriended Smith, a broke loner fresh out of jail and living in his daughter’s basement.

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Over the next few months, Smith and the undercover officer — who cannot be identified because of a publication ban — bonded over numerous fishing trips and became close friends.

Gradually, the undercover officer began involving Smith in fake criminal endeavours, including small drug deals, and paying him for help.

Before long, Smith was introduced to his new friend’s crime boss, the so-called Mr. Big. In July 2009, the fake criminal organization told Smith about its scheme to rob a drug dealer of $80,000.

Smith was then told the robbery went wrong. When he drove to an industrial area at Keele St. and Highway 407 to help, he found Mr. Big slathered in fake blood, standing over what Smith believed was a dead body — a weighted-down mannequin wrapped in tarps.

Smith helped him burn evidence and drop the fake body off a cliff. Soon after, Mr. Big told Smith he needed some incriminating information about him, as insurance Smith wouldn’t go to police about the murder.

Smith then gave the first of two confessions, that he killed Beverly Smith alongside another man.

The undercover operation continued for another six months, at which point Smith made a second confession, that he alone killed Beverly Smith.

While police tactics involving staged situations and subterfuge are allowed during the investigation of serious crimes, use of the Mr. Big technique is highly criticized.

The tactic emerged in the early 1990s in British Columbia. Between 1997 and 2004, 180 such investigations were conducted in that province alone.

Critics say the tool goes beyond what should be allowed by police and produces unreliable information.

“There is a real concern that the technique may cause innocent people to falsely confess, giving rise to a risk of wrongful confessions,” Toronto lawyer Peter Copeland writes (with co-authors Timothy Moore and Regina Schuller) in Deceit, Betrayal and the Search for Truth, the first major legal and academic study on the Mr. Big scenario.

“The Mr. Big procedure is a fundamentally deceitful exercise,” they write.