Man tells murder trial he saw ex-girlfriend attacked through webcam

TORONTO – A man from China is telling a first-degree murder trial that he was chatting on a webcam with his ex-girlfriend in Toronto when a man forced his way into her room and shoved her down.

Xian Meng says he saw the man have a brief conversation with Qian Liu, 23, in her doorway then when she tried to close the door he forced his way into the room.

Meng says Liu was pushing the man’s chest, saying “no” in both Mandarin and English and during the struggle Liu was pushed down, out of the webcam’s view.

He says he then heard two muffled bangs then heard nothing more from Liu, but after a few moments of silence he heard the man breathing heavily, then he heard the sound of furniture moving around.

Meng says the last thing he saw was the man, naked, reappear in front of the computer screen, bending forward to shut the computer off.

Brian Dickson, who was a tenant in the same building as Liu, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, but his lawyer has told the jury he’ll be urging a finding of manslaughter.