Crown prosecutors are expected to walk a jury through evidence linking a Dutch man to B.C. teen Amanda Todd as they near the end of closing submissions in a high-profile “sextortion” case on Friday.
Aydin Coban, 44, has pleaded not guilty to harassment, extortion, luring and possession of child pornography in the trial, now in its eighth week.
Todd took her own life in 2012 at the age of 15, after three years of online torment. Coban is not charged in her death.
Evidence presented at trial has shown how Todd received a series of messages between 2009 and 2012 demanding she perform pornographic web cam “shows” or explicit images of her would be sent to friends, family and her school community.
In several cases, the blackmailer followed through, sending links to a pornography website hosting a video of Todd to dozens of people.
On Thursday, Crown prosecutor Marcel Daigle told the jury that a video with the file name “Amanda Todd” was played on a device police seized from Coban’s cabin in the Netherlands. Daigle said the file was played in December 2010, citing evidence presented by a Dutch cybercrime expert, which corresponded directly with one of the periods Todd was being extorted.
The contents of the video itself were not recovered by police.
Throughout closing arguments, the Crown has also walked the jury through the contents of the messages Todd received, and argued that similarities in language and phrasing, along with references to previous messages, show they were authored by the same person.
Coban’s defence maintains there is no link between him and the online extortionist. Defence lawyer Joseph Saulnier has said that while there is no doubt Todd was the victim of crimes, the question at trial is who authored the messages she received, which must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
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