B.C. girl Amanda Todd victim of ‘persistent campaign’ of ‘sextortion’: Crown

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A “sextortionist” tried for 2 years to attempt to drive Port Coquitlam’s Amanda Todd into creating intercourse movies, beginning when she was 12, the opening day of his trial in a B.C. courtroom heard on Monday.

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“The sextortionist extorts one other particular person and extorts them into performing sexual acts,” lead Crown prosecutor Louise Kenworthy stated in her opening assertion on the trial of Aydin Coban of the Netherlands.

Coban, who’s dealing with prices of extorting, harassing and sexually luring, tried to get Todd to document a collection of intercourse tapes in alternate for not following by on his threats to ship on-line photographs of her baring her breasts to household, buddies, schoolmates and lecturers, Kenworthy stated.

The cyberbullying case, which attracted worldwide consideration after Amanda posted a silent plea for assist in the type of hand-printed cue playing cards earlier than killing herself at age 15, opened in B.C. Supreme Courtroom in New Westminster with the accused pleading “not responsible” to all 5 prices.

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Coban, who’s in his early 40s, along with his gray collar-length hair gelled straight and sporting a darkish blue gown shirt with no jacket or tie, sat at one finish of the lengthy prisoner dock, protected on three sides with thick plexiglass partitions, staring straight forward as Kenworthy made her opening assertion to the jury.

Coban can be charged with speaking with an individual below 18 to carry out a sexual act, legal harassment, possession of kid pornography and possession of kid pornography for distribution or sale.

Kenworthy stated the Crown will present proof somebody used 22 aliases to “sextort” Amanda Todd over 4 durations of time between late 2009 and early 2012.

In a single message despatched to the woman in December of 2010, he threatened to ahead hyperlinks to 52 of her schoolmates of a video she had posted of her exposing her breasts, if she didn’t adjust to a requirement to ship him a sexually specific video, Kenworthy alleged.

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“You bought that, b——?” the message stated. “After 10 reveals, you do what I say and I’ll disappear.”

The primary risk, with a hyperlink to the video exhibiting her baring her breasts, got here on Nov. 9, 2009, when Amanda was 12, about to show 13. It demanded she ship him sexual video on Skype “or I’ll ship this to all of the Todd household.”

That was adopted on Dec. 4 by a special alias that stated, “Final likelihood or I begin sending this” to her buddies, household and the newspapers.

The hyperlinks had been then despatched on Dec. 23, 2010, to classmates, members of the family and lecturers. It included the phrases “LOL,” a declare that the video confirmed Amanda exhibiting her chest to lots of of men, and “ha ha ha, what a s—,” courtroom heard.

Amanda’s mom, Carol Todd, was the Crown’s first witness and testified she clicked on a Fb message on that day that confirmed her daughter with bared breasts on an internet grownup porn website.

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“I feel my coronary heart skipped a beat,” stated Todd. It was 2 a.m. and Amanda was staying at her father’s so she didn’t name police and determined to attend till after Christmas to report it.

Hours later, an RCMP officer confirmed as much as do a security examine on Amanda as a result of police had acquired a report of the net posts. However that evening, she was staying at her father’s.

Coban additionally despatched emails to folks with the final title Todd, posing as “Alice McAllister,” from an internet little one safety company, saying she had photographs of Amanda “exhibiting herself bare in entrance of 100s of men,” Kenworthy stated.

When Amanda modified faculties to Westview secondary in early 2011, he named the varsity and informed her to select “door No. 1. … Sure, I’ll do what you say, or door No. 2, please f— up my life at Westview, too,” courtroom heard.

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Kenworthy stated Crown would present proof — gathered by examination of computer systems and arduous drives seized by Dutch investigators at Coban’s residence within the Netherlands — that messages despatched to Amanda by the 22 aliases had been despatched by one particular person and that particular person was Coban.

Coban’s trial is anticipated to run for 35 days. He was extradited from the Netherlands in late 2020 and remained in custody whereas COVID delayed the trial begin from January 2021.

A video Amanda posted on Sept. 7, 2012, to YouTube referred to as “My Story: Struggling, bullying, suicide and self-harm,” confirmed her hiding behind flash playing cards to inform of her experiences of being enticed into flashing to an internet group. She talked of being ostracized by classmates when the photographs had been posted to Fb and later of being bullied and overwhelmed.

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Amanda, 15, hanged herself in her Port Coquitlam dwelling a few month afterward Oct. 10, 2012, after posting her video which ended with, “I’ve no one. I would like somebody.” The video has been seen by hundreds of thousands.

RCMP introduced prices in opposition to Coban in April 2017.

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