Trial for man accused of York University webcam murder starts this week
By Michele Mandel ,Toronto Sun
First posted: Saturday, March 15, 2014 09:00 PM EDT | Updated: Saturday, March 15, 2014 11:13 PM EDT
TORONTO - Her parents will make the long journey from China to seek justice for their slain daughter.
Three years after 23-year-old student Qian “Necole” Liu was killed in what has been dubbed the Webcam Murder, the trial is finally slated to begin this week with jury selection at the downtown Toronto courthouse.
“They will be attending,” confirmed friend Charles Burton, a former Canadian diplomat to China who has worked with Liu’s father, Liu Jainhui, in Beijing. “I think they’re hoping the Canadian justice system will produce a just result.
“They have a language barrier and they don’t understand our system all that well, but they will have an interpreter at the trial,” added Burton, a political science professor at Brock University.
It was a slaying ripped from the script of a terrifying TV drama.
Liu, a graduate of Beijing City College, came to Toronto in September 2010 to study English at York University. She rented a unit in one of the red brick townhomes south of the university popular with students.
But, Liu missed home and told her mother that during their final web chat just hours before she was killed April 15, 2011.
Her next web call to Beijing was with Meng Xianchao, her boyfriend of seven years. It was around 1 a.m. and the petite visa student was in her basement unit on Aldwinckle Heights when police say she got a knock on the door.
Toronto Police homicide detectives have said Liu didn’t have a peephole, so she would have had to open the door to see who was there.
Her boyfriend watched in horror at what then transpired.
“I was so far away. I couldn’t reach her,” he told a reporter in Beijing. “I felt helpless and couldn’t calm down.”
From 18,000 kilometres away, all he could do was frantically try and reach his Toronto friends and ask them to check on Liu. But people were sleeping and it wasn’t until around 11 a.m. that two friends were let into her apartment by her landlord to see if she was okay.
But, it was too late. They discovered Liu’s body, naked from the waist down. Police would later say there was no obvious sign of trauma or sexual assault.
Her cause of death has not been released.
The bizarre murder made headlines around the world. At a press conference, Det.-Sgt. Frank Skubic said there appeared to be no recording of the webcam transmission of Liu’s fatal encounter and said police were seeking her missing webcam, IBM ThinkPad laptop and Nokia smartphone, all assumed to have been taken after she was killed.
Five days after the murder, police had a suspect under arrest. Charged with first-degree murder is Brian ****son, a handsome, 29-year-old former York U. global politics student who lived in the same building. The university was quick to issue a press release to say the running instructor and amateur actor was no longer registered at York and had never graduated.
For Liu’s parents, there are so many questions they need answered. But, the wheels of justice move slowly and the original trial date they were given was postponed for a year.
“It’s been a very long delay,” said Burton, who’s known the victim’s father, a Communist Party historian, since 2006. “It really is disturbing to have it drag out so long.”
Liu’s parents are trying to prepare themselves not only for the horrible details of their daughter’s death, but also for the intense media interest this trial will garner. It’s made headlines internationally because of the lurid webcam aspect. In China, it will be closely watched by parents who worry about the safety of sending their children to study in Canada.
For Burton, who was once an exchange student in China, it all hits too close to home,
“I have a daughter who’s of similar age,” he said. “I feel a great deal of sadness over the whole thing. I want something done so the family will feel the matter is settled in a just way.”
First posted: Saturday, March 15, 2014 09:00 PM EDT | Updated: Saturday, March 15, 2014 11:13 PM EDT
TORONTO - Her parents will make the long journey from China to seek justice for their slain daughter.
Three years after 23-year-old student Qian “Necole” Liu was killed in what has been dubbed the Webcam Murder, the trial is finally slated to begin this week with jury selection at the downtown Toronto courthouse.
“They will be attending,” confirmed friend Charles Burton, a former Canadian diplomat to China who has worked with Liu’s father, Liu Jainhui, in Beijing. “I think they’re hoping the Canadian justice system will produce a just result.
“They have a language barrier and they don’t understand our system all that well, but they will have an interpreter at the trial,” added Burton, a political science professor at Brock University.
It was a slaying ripped from the script of a terrifying TV drama.
Liu, a graduate of Beijing City College, came to Toronto in September 2010 to study English at York University. She rented a unit in one of the red brick townhomes south of the university popular with students.
But, Liu missed home and told her mother that during their final web chat just hours before she was killed April 15, 2011.
Her next web call to Beijing was with Meng Xianchao, her boyfriend of seven years. It was around 1 a.m. and the petite visa student was in her basement unit on Aldwinckle Heights when police say she got a knock on the door.
Toronto Police homicide detectives have said Liu didn’t have a peephole, so she would have had to open the door to see who was there.
Her boyfriend watched in horror at what then transpired.
“I was so far away. I couldn’t reach her,” he told a reporter in Beijing. “I felt helpless and couldn’t calm down.”
From 18,000 kilometres away, all he could do was frantically try and reach his Toronto friends and ask them to check on Liu. But people were sleeping and it wasn’t until around 11 a.m. that two friends were let into her apartment by her landlord to see if she was okay.
But, it was too late. They discovered Liu’s body, naked from the waist down. Police would later say there was no obvious sign of trauma or sexual assault.
Her cause of death has not been released.
The bizarre murder made headlines around the world. At a press conference, Det.-Sgt. Frank Skubic said there appeared to be no recording of the webcam transmission of Liu’s fatal encounter and said police were seeking her missing webcam, IBM ThinkPad laptop and Nokia smartphone, all assumed to have been taken after she was killed.
Five days after the murder, police had a suspect under arrest. Charged with first-degree murder is Brian ****son, a handsome, 29-year-old former York U. global politics student who lived in the same building. The university was quick to issue a press release to say the running instructor and amateur actor was no longer registered at York and had never graduated.
For Liu’s parents, there are so many questions they need answered. But, the wheels of justice move slowly and the original trial date they were given was postponed for a year.
“It’s been a very long delay,” said Burton, who’s known the victim’s father, a Communist Party historian, since 2006. “It really is disturbing to have it drag out so long.”
Liu’s parents are trying to prepare themselves not only for the horrible details of their daughter’s death, but also for the intense media interest this trial will garner. It’s made headlines internationally because of the lurid webcam aspect. In China, it will be closely watched by parents who worry about the safety of sending their children to study in Canada.
For Burton, who was once an exchange student in China, it all hits too close to home,
“I have a daughter who’s of similar age,” he said. “I feel a great deal of sadness over the whole thing. I want something done so the family will feel the matter is settled in a just way.”
Qian “Necole” Liu (Supplied photo)
Trial for man accused of York University webcam murder starts this week | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun
Trial for man accused of York University webcam murder starts this week | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun
