A Toronto, Canada took just four hours to deliberate and return with a guilty verdict against a 32-year-old man who raped and murdered a university student from China.  The woman had been in a webchat with her boyfriend in Beijing, who watched the dastardly crime in horror from thousands of kilometers away.

32-year old Bruce Dickson’s attorneys unsuccessfully claimed the defendant was guilty only of manslaughter because he did not intend to kill 23-year old Qian “Necole” Liu. 

Police found Liu dead in April 2011, just after her boyfriend in China watched via webcam as she tried to fend off an attacker who appeared at her door, and repeatedly said, “No”.  Dickson pushed Liu down off camera, and soon the boyfriend testified he could no longer here any sounds coming from Liu.  After a period of silence, the boyfriend heard Dickson breathing heavily and moments later the defendant appeared naked in front of the webcam and turned off the computer.

The webcam was not recorded.  But DNA evidence conclusively proved Dickson was the culprit.  He had tried to plead guilty to a lesser charge, but prosecutors insisted on going to trial on the maximum.  The judge imposed a life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.