Warning: This story contains details that may disturb readers. Discretion Advised.
A friend of Amanda Todd testified Tuesday at the trial of her accused online torturer who called police after finding a topless photo of the teen online.
Aydin Coban, a citizen of the Netherlands, is accused of harassing and extorting money from Todd before taking her own life in 2012, using nearly two dozen online accounts. He has pleaded not guilty.
Crown has said it will prove that Coban was the brains behind the various social media profiles using a combination of technical information and the content of the posts themselves.
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Prosecutors called six witnesses to the stand Tuesday, including 24-year-old James Bennett, who testified that he was 13 when the topless photo of Todd appeared on various Facebook profiles, including his own.
Bennett told the court that he deleted the photo from his Facebook page and called the police. He said he then made a post asking others to remove the photo and also report it.
According to his testimony, the photo was posted by a Facebook user by the name of Austin Collins.
When Crown asked Bennett if he knew anyone by that name, he said not personally, but they were friends on Facebook. He explained that he wasn’t particularly selective about who he was friends with on Facebook at the time.
Crown alleges that Coban was behind the Austin Collins account and 21 others that he used to sexually blackmail Todd and send explicit images of the teen to his friends and family between 2009 and 2012.
The defense did not question Bennett.
Asked outside the British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver after his testimony why he felt compelled to denounce the image, Bennett said he didn’t want to see it online.
“I felt like it was the right thing to do,” he told Global News. “It was child pornography, it was disturbing. I didn’t want those images to be shared with my friend.”
Bennett added that it was “infuriating” to find out at trial that he was the only one who reported the image to police at the time.
“I was hoping there would be a group of us there,” he said.
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Carol Todd, Amanda’s mother, praised Bennett’s actions outside of court after meeting him for the first time on Tuesday.
“For a 13-year-old to be so wise and do that… it makes my heart happy that he did this,” he said.
“We have to talk to our kids about what’s right, and it was the right thing to have it removed.”
Tuesday’s trial also heard from three RCMP officers who were called to investigate the claim of online harassment in 2011, as well as a former assistant principal at the school Amanda attended, who told the court he helped keep to the 15 year old. .
Coban has pleaded not guilty to five counts, including possession of child pornography, extortion, criminal harassment and contacting a youth to commit a sexual offense.
The defense has yet to give its opening argument. Coban’s attorney, Joseph Saulnier, has previously said that while there is no question Todd was a victim of crimes, the issue at trial is who was responsible for the messages.
The defense contends that there is no link between Coban and the online extortionist, and that Crown needs to prove beyond a reasonable doubt who actually sent the messages Todd received.
Not long before his death in 2012, he posted a video on YouTube chronicling his ordeal, which garnered worldwide attention and became a rallying cry against cyberbullying.
In the video, Todd silently displays a series of cards describing the torment he endured.
The trial is expected to last three more weeks.
— with Simon Little files
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