Man convicted in webcam murder denied government-funded lawyer for appeal
TORONTO — A man who killed a Toronto university student from China in an attack partly witnessed via webcam has been denied a request for a government-paid lawyer to represent him in an appeal of his conviction.
Brian Dickson was found guilty of first-degree murder in April 2014 in the death of Qian Liu, a York University student who was living in off-campus housing.
The 23-year-old Liu had been chatting via webcam with her ex-boyfriend in China in April 2011 when a man forced his way into her room and knocked her down.
The ex-boyfriend testified at Dickson’s trial that he heard two muffled bangs before there were no more sounds from Liu. He testified that after a period of silence he heard the man breathing heavily and moments later the man appeared naked from the waist down in front of the webcam and turned off the computer.