Canadian charged with webcam murder

A dishevelled man appeared in a Toronto court today charged with murdering a Chinese woman whose scuffle with her assailant was seen on webcam by her helpless boyfriend back home thousands of miles away.

But police were not releasing any details about the crime nor its motive.

Brian Dickson, 29, is accused of killing 23-year-old York University student Liu Qian of Beijing.

Dickson stood before the court in a very wrinkled white shirt and blue jeans as a charge of first-degree murder was read out. He did not enter a plea.

The case was postponed to April 26. The justice of the peace imposed a publication ban on nearly all other details.

Police only announced his name and age and asked the media not to publish any photos of Dickson, saying it could compromise the investigation.

Liu’s body was found on Friday in her apartment in Toronto a few hours after her boyfriend in China witnessed the attack, police said. She was naked from the waist down and there were no obvious signs of sexual assault or trauma severe enough to kill her. The post-mortem examination was inconclusive.

Dickson was arrested on Wednesday. Police released no motive or details about Dickson, but one friend described him as an aspiring actor.

Patricia Tomasi, a Facebook friend of Dickson’s, said that she acted in a play at a local theatre in Toronto with Dickson in 2007.

“He doesn’t seem like the type but that’s what they always say,” Tomasi said of the allegations.

“He’s tall with boyish good looks. I don’t know much about him except that he wanted to be an actor.”

Dickson attended York University where he took global politics. He later worked for the Atlantic Council of Canada, a Nato-affiliated thinktank where he served as an assistant to the president, Julie Lindhout. According to his biographic details in a newsletter from the Atlantic Council of Canada, Dickson has also been a running instructor and has been involved with Developments in Literacy, a Pakistani aid organisation that raises money for children in Pakistan.

Liu was chatting with her boyfriend, Meng Xianchao, by webcam at about 1am on Friday when a man knocked on the door, police said.

Meng reported seeing a struggle break out between the two before Liu’s webcam was shut off. Meng contacted other friends in Toronto who in turn called police.

The victim’s father, Liu Jianhui, said his daughter studied at Beijing City University before moving to Canada, where she met Meng. Liu Jianhui arrived on Wednesday from China. He is the research director of Communist Party history at the Party School of the Central Committee of CPC, which trains party officials.

Liu Qian’s laptop computer, webcam and mobile phone were taken from the apartment on the night of the attack, police said.

Police said the online chat was on a live streaming camera and was not recorded, though investigators were trying to figure out if there was any way they could recover it.