WARNING: This article accommodates particulars of sexual extortion and will have an effect on those that have skilled it or know somebody affected by it.
The 44-year-old Dutch man convicted of sexually extorting a B.C. teenager who died by suicide a decade in the past was sentenced to 13 years in jail Friday.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Martha Devlin requested Aydin Coban to stand as she learn out her ultimate choice, after studying via the arguments offered by the Crown and the defence and explaining her deliberation course of.
Coban was convicted in August of extortion, two counts of possession of baby pornography, baby luring and prison harassment towards Amanda Todd.
Todd’s story of being exploited on-line from November of 2009 to February of 2012 travelled around the globe. She died by suicide on Oct. 10, 2012, after importing a nine-minute video detailing the abuse she skilled and the way it had affected her life in a sequence of flash playing cards.
Devlin detailed how Coban used 22 totally different aliases to chat with Amanda Todd on Facebook, YouTube and Skype, demanding internet cam reveals. He despatched her greater than 700 messages and made “persistent on-line threats,” in accordance to Devlin.
Coban threatened to ship pictures and movies of Todd in compromising positions to her family and friends.
“When Amanda refused to comply together with his calls for, Mr. Coban made good on his threats,” mentioned Justice Devlin, detailing a sequence of threats Coban made via numerous aliases to each Todd, her household and her pals.
Coban posted and shared suggestive and pornographic pictures of Todd on Facebook, in YouTube feedback and uploaded them to picture internet hosting websites. He additionally used some of his alias accounts to pose as a younger good friend and a involved grownup in numerous situations, claiming to be anxious about her behaviour on-line.
Devlin mentioned whereas she did not discover Coban’s behaviour to be the “dominating issue” in her suicide, as claimed by the Crown, she did discover that he brought on “profound hurt” that contributed to her psychological well being points, melancholy and substance use.
“(*13*) Amanda’s life was Mr. Coban’s expressly said objective and was, sadly, one which he achieved,” she mentioned.
In her conclusion, Devlin warned younger folks in regards to the risks of utilizing the web and the benefit to which adults can conceal their id when interacting with susceptible kids.
Coban was extradited to Canada to face trial and is at the moment serving time within the Netherlands for related offences towards totally different victims. He will serve his Canadian sentence after his launch there.
More to come
Support is obtainable for anybody who has been sexually assaulted. You can entry disaster strains and native help companies via this Government of Canada web site or the Ending Violence Association of Canada database. If you are in instant hazard or concern for your security or that of others round you, please name 911.
If you or somebody you recognize is struggling, here is the place to get assist:
This information from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health outlines how to speak about suicide with somebody you are anxious about.