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As Brian Dickson was handcuffed by guards and taken away, padding from the courtroom in slip-on runners, the shoes with the laces, a potential hazard in prison, were discreetly picked up by his lawyer Robert Nuttall.

I wonder where such items go on these electric and awful occasions: Is there a repository somewhere of shoes and ties for those convicted of first-degree murder and facing a minimum 25 years behind bars? Is there an auction? Are they returned to the families to keep?

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Dickson’s mother Diana stood at the rail between the body of the court and the public gallery. She appeared to grab a quiet word with her youngest son; her husband Barry stood in the first row, watching.

In what may have been a land-speed record for the main Toronto courthouse, an Ontario Superior Court jury returned early Monday evening with a verdict after only four hours of deliberation.

They convicted Dickson, now 32, of first-degree murder in the April 15, 2011 slaying of Qian Hui Liu, a tiny York University student from Beijing.