Photo: Dutch police
UPDATE: 6:30 p.m
British Columbia teenager Amanda Todd feared the man who bullied and blackmailed her would continue for the rest of her life and there was nothing she could do to stop it, a Crown attorney told British Columbia Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Kristen Lenoble showed the court a Facebook post Todd wrote shortly after the abuser shared sexualized images of her, saying: “I feel so sad, I feel so bad.”
The Port Coquitlam teenager, who died nearly a decade ago, had previously written a post asking people to support her rather than judge her because she feared her abuser would spread content that depicted her sexually. she said.
“This is such a terrible feeling for me,” Lenoble read from one of Todd’s posts.
She told the trial of Aidin Koban, the Dutch man accused of extorting Todd, that the man threatened to spread links to her family, friends and classmates unless she did a series of sex “shows” on a webcam.
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.
At one point, one of the many aliases used to extort Todd sent a message telling her she had until the end of the day “until all hell breaks loose,” Lenoble said.
The man also threatened to report Todd to child protective authorities, she said.
Lenoble said Todd wrote a post on Facebook urging people to block one of the abuser’s accounts, saying he was a “sick pedophile” who was blackmailing her.
The teenager wrote: “He’s going to send you a link to me, what I did was very stupid but people make mistakes,” she said.
Todd implores people not to share content they can get, she said.
“It’s like I cried my eyes out,” Lenoble said, reading from the post.
LeNoble told the jury Tuesday that by the time the Crown finishes its closing arguments, it will be proven beyond a doubt that Coban was the man behind 22 separate online aliases used to harass and extort Todd.
Later Wednesday, lawyer Marcel Daigle moved to the next phase of the Crown’s argument to prove that one person was behind all the accounts.
Daigle showed the jury examples of messages Todd received from different usernames on multiple online platforms, including Facebook, YouTube and Gmail, some of which were “word-for-word identical” and sent on the same day.
Lenoble told the court Todd also hit back at her abuser, sending them a message saying he hoped they felt guilty for “ruining a young girl’s life”.
She showed the jury the messages the abuser exchanged on Facebook with several people Todd was connected to on the site, including a male friend who expressed an interest in viewing sexualized images of the teenager.
The abuser shared a link to a pornographic website, and Todd’s Facebook friend replied, “Sick, thanks bro,” Lenoble said.
The extortion began shortly before Todd turned 13 in November 2009, she said.
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.
The Crown is expected to continue its arguments through the end of the week.
ORIGINAL: 6:45 am
British Columbia teenager Amanda Todd said on Facebook that a “pedophile” had been blackmailing her for years while 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 were done, she said, the Crown would have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Coban was the man behind 22 separate online aliases used to blackmail Todd over several years before she died nearly 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.
Add Comment