Rain mixing with the tears on her face, Zheng Yaru clutched a photo of her only child as her husband praised the Canadian justice system.

The smiling picture was taken before the petite literature graduate moved away from her parents in Beijing to study English at York University.

Qian “Necole” Liu, 23, had been in Canada for seven months before she was killed by Brian Dickson, a fellow tenant in a rooming house south of the York campus, as her ex-boyfriend watched helplessly over a webcam.

On Monday, a jury found Dickson, 32, guilty of first-degree murder after deliberating just a few hours.

“This is a very fair decision from the court,” Jianhui Liu said through a translator outside the downtown Toronto courthouse.

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The verdict came two days after the Chinese day of remembrance for the dead, he added. “Maybe I can have some good news for my daughter.”

The jury came to its decision without knowing that Dickson “advocated having sex with children” on online message boards, had faced a sexual assault charge that was later withdrawn and had made a sexual advance on another young rooming house tenant, according to police.

The jury was not told that a police search of Dickson’s room found 103 pornographic DVDs, about half involving “Asian pornography” and a quarter involving teenagers.

Qian Liu's parents respond to Brian Dickson's guilty verdict at University courthouse.

The Crown argued Dickson deliberately murdered Liu to keep her silent after he forced his way into her apartment and sexually assaulted her.

The defence countered that Dickson is only guilty of manslaughter because he killed Liu unintentionally as she resisted his sexual advances around 1 a.m. on April 15, 2011.

Dickson’s plea to manslaughter at the start of the trial was rejected by the Crown.

Dickson showed no reaction as he stood to be handcuffed after Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy sentenced him to life in prison with no parole for 25 years, the mandatory sentence for first-degree murder.

Dickson has been in custody since his arrest days after the murder and was denied bail in January 2012 as the circumstances of the murder were “quite disturbing,” Molloy had said.

The court heard during the bail hearing that while Dickson had no criminal record, he faced a sexual assault charge in 2006 that was withdrawn by the Crown. The details, covered by a bail hearing publication ban, were kept from the jury and can now be revealed.

The woman alleged she met Dickson at a nightclub in January 2006 and invited him back to her residence, Det.-Sgt. Frank Skubic told the court at the bail hearing.

She alleged Dickson forced her to have intercourse and later told her “he had never had a mock rape before.”

In the message boards, Dickson’s posts “obviously advocated having sex with children and sharing children for sex,” Skubic said.

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A former girlfriend alleged Dickson choked her after an argument in 2008, though she did not proceed with charges, court heard in the bail hearing.

A young woman who lived in the same rooming house as Liu and Dickson described him as being “weird and creepy” Skubic testified.

Dickson tried to kiss her once, but stopped when she turned her head, the woman told Skubic. Dickson also came to her room twice at night. The first time he asked for a cigarette, the second she didn’t answer, Skubic said.

Liu’s former boyfriend, Xian Meng, who lived in Beijing at the time, testified he and Liu were video-chatting when he heard a knock at her door.

He told the court he saw a man shove his way into the apartment and attempt to embrace her, he said.

Liu resisted, pushing at his chest, Meng said.

She said “no” in both English and Mandarin, he told the court. After two muffled bangs, there was silence from Liu, he said.

He could hear heavy breathing and then saw a man naked from the waist down approach the webcam and disconnect it, he said.

Liu’s body was found lying face down on her bedroom floor later that morning after Meng managed to alert one of her friends. Semen that overwhelmingly matches Dickson’s DNA profile was found on her mostly naked body. Liu’s blood was also found on a blue T-shirt belonging to Dickson.

The likeliest cause of Liu’s death, according to pathologists, was “mechanical asphyxiation,” the Crown said during the trial. This could include neck compression through something like a chokehold.

Defence lawyer Robert Nuttall maintained a cause of death has not been established. He suggested a scenario where a sexually aroused Dickson was sitting on Liu’s chest, her head cricked against the wall. This would have unintentionally prevented Liu from breathing and could explain her neck injuries, he said.

This scenario was dismissed by a pathologist because it did not explain the bruises on Liu’s neck.

Dickson “has been absolutely remorseful for a very, very long period of time,” Nuttall said following the verdict.

He added it’s too early to say if Dickson will appeal the verdict.

Dickson’s parents, who have been present every day of the trial and offered to act as sureties for their son at the 2012 bail hearing, declined to comment.