British Columbia teenager Amanda Todd said on Facebook that a “pedophile” had been blackmailing her for years as she alerted people to an account she believed was run by the perpetrator, a Crown attorney told the British Columbia Supreme Court.
In closing arguments in the trial of Dutchman Aydin Coban, Kristen Lenoble told the jury that Todd made the post shortly before she received a message from another Facebook user demanding she perform sexual “shows” on camera or videos would be sent to showing her breasts to her family and classmates.
The teenager, from Port Coquitlam, B.C., had recently moved in with her father in a neighboring community and started attending a new school, LeNoble said.
Coban pleaded not guilty to extortion, harassment, communicating with a young person for the purpose of committing a sexual offense and possession of child pornography.
Lenoble began closing arguments Tuesday, telling jurors the Crown would spend the next few days helping them “unpack” the significant amount of evidence, including testimony from more than 30 witnesses and binders filled with 80 pieces of evidence.
By the time they finish, she said, the Crown will proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Coban was the man behind 22 separate online aliases used to extort Todd for several years before he died almost a decade ago.
Some of the messages feigned support and tried to build a relationship of trust with Todd, while others threatened to ruin her life, LeNoble told the jury.
LeNoble showed the jury a message sent by the abuser to Todd’s family and school administrators while posing as a member of a child protection agency, which included a link to a pornographic website showing a video of the teenager.
She described how another Facebook alias was used to send messages with the same link to 99 users on Todd’s friends list on the social networking site.
The abuse began just before Todd turned 13 in November 2009, she said.
“Enough good deeds,” Lenoble said, reading from one of the messages where the harasser threatened to publicly release a video of Todd showing her breasts.
“You will do as you are told… I already have 17 people in your family, 52 classmates and teachers from your school through their official website. I can send them right away along with the child protective agencies who will pursue you,” she read.
“Your life will never be the same… Either you do as I say and after 10 shows where you do as I say, I disappear as if nothing happened,” read the message, which Lenoble called “a real bully hammer, blackmailing and enticing message.”
Crown prosecutor Louise Kenworthy told jurors at the start of the trial almost two months ago that Todd was the victim of a constant campaign of online “sexual blackmail” for three years before her death aged 15 in October 2012.
Carol Todd testified that her daughter was frightened when she brought messages to her attention, and Amanda’s distress increased with each incident.
Lenoble showed the jury a message Amanda sent to her cousin and other people she knew after the video of her showing her breasts went viral.
In the message, Amanda said she “lighted up” for “200 guys” on YouTube the year before because they “begged” and she “thought it wouldn’t matter.”
The message shows that the teenager then wrote that she had “ruined” her life with the video because of the harassment and blackmail that followed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 26, 2022.
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