Crown Prosecutor alleges ‘persistent campaign’ of online harassment against BC teen

NEW WESTMINSTER, BC — Amanda Todd’s mother says her heart skipped a beat when she clicked on a link to an adult porn website featuring her teenage daughter’s image a few days before Christmas 2010.

Carol Todd told the British Columbia Supreme Court trial of Aydin Coban, a Dutch man accused of harassing and extorting his daughter, Amanda, that the link to the site was contained in a Facebook message he sent her.

Coban pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of racketeering, stalking, contacting a youth to commit a sexual offense and two counts of possession of child pornography.

Crown prosecutor Louise Kenworthy said in her opening statement that Amanda had been the victim of a “persistent campaign” of online “sexual extortion” from November 2009 to February 2012, before her death by suicide at the age of 15 in October of that year.

Kenworthy said the “sextortionist” had used more than 20 separate usernames to contact the Port Coquitlam teenager, threatening to send her friends and family photos showing her holding hands in her underwear and showing her breasts, unless to perform sexual acts from the front. from a webcam.

Carol Todd told the jury trial that she took a screenshot and printed a copy of what she saw when she clicked on the link in the December 2010 Facebook message.

He said he had planned to report it to the RCMP the next morning because it was around 10 p.m., but an officer rang his doorbell around 2 a.m. to conduct a “security check” on Amanda, who was staying with her. his father at that time. .

Kenworthy showed jurors examples of messages sent to the teenager via Facebook, YouTube and Skype, including one the author said would go away if she hosted “10 shows.”

The prosecutor said messages were also sent to more than 100 Facebook users Amanda knew, telling them she had exposed her breasts online and including a link to a website.

After receiving the initial message, Todd said he went with Amanda and her father to discuss the situation with the police.

His daughter was quiet and uncommunicative about the incident, Todd said, but after they talked later, he concluded that was because Amanda felt guilty and ashamed and was afraid of getting into trouble.

Todd agreed with the prosecutor that he encouraged his daughter to tell him if she received any messages, saying that she would stay out of trouble and that it was for Amanda’s safety.

Todd testified that Amanda was scared when she brought subsequent messages to his attention, and the distress increased with each message.

She said Amanda felt like she was being followed or stalked by a stranger.

Todd testified that Amanda had taken singing lessons and had figured out at a young age how to record herself singing and upload the videos to YouTube.

“It was a time when Justin Bieber became famous online,” he said, and like many other young people, Amanda also wanted to be famous.

Todd said that when Amanda stayed with her, Todd’s internet access and laptop were restricted.

Kenworthy told the jury at the start of the trial on Monday that the Crown expected to present evidence and call witnesses to show that the numerous accounts allegedly used to harass and extort Amanda Todd were operated by Coban, who was arrested by Dutch police at his home in January 2014.

Dutch officers searched Coban’s home and seized a desktop computer, a laptop and hard drives, he said, and forensic copies of the devices’ contents were sent to RCMP in BC.

An RCMP officer who examined the material is expected to testify that he found evidence of accounts allegedly used to harass Amanda on one or more of those seized devices, he said.

The trial will also hear evidence of file names referring to the teen, although the contents of those files were no longer viewable, Kenworthy said.

This report from The Canadian Press was first published on June 6, 2022.

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