NEW WESTMINSTER, BRITISH COLUMBIA (AP) – A Canadian jury found a Dutch man guilty on Saturday of extortion, harassment and other charges related to a case of a Canadian teenager who was blackmailed to expose herself in front of a webcam. The 15-year-old later committed suicide after detailing her harassment on a YouTube video watched by millions around the world.
The jury in the British Columbia Supreme Court trial of Aydin Coban has found him guilty on all charges he faced, including communication with a young person to commit a sexual offence and possession and distribution of child pornography in relation to the Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, teen Amanda Todd.
She was 15 years old when she died by suicide in 2012 after posting a video that described being tormented by an online harasser. The jury’s unanimous verdict comes a day after deliberations got underway.
Coban was extradited from the Netherlands to Canada in 2020 after being convicted in Amsterdam of similar charges involving dozens of young girls and men.
Amanda Todd brought the problem of cyber-bullying to mainstream attention in Canada after she posted the video on YouTube in which she told her story with handwritten signs, describing how she was lured by a stranger to expose her breasts on a webcam.
The picture ended up on a Facebook page made by the stranger, to which her friends were added. She was repeatedly bullied, despite changing schools, before finally killing herself weeks after posting the video.
