'Sextortion': Canadian court finds Dutch man guilty after teen commits suicide

Dutch citizen Aydin Coban was found guilty of all charges related to the online harassment and sexual extortion of a 15-year-old Canadian girl who committed suicide in 2012.

Toronto's CityNews Everwhere reports that 44-year-old Coban was found guilty of "extortion, harassment, communication with a young person to commit a sexual offence, and possession and distribution of child pornography" over his treatment of teenager Amanda Todd by the British Columbia Supreme Court in a unanimous verdict. Coban had been successfully extradited to Canada from the Netherlands in order to stand trial for his crimes.

The victim's mother, Carol Todd, said, "This day has been the best day since Amanda was born. This day, Amanda’s voice shone through. Today were words that really were joyous to my heart. And we’re doing all this for Amanda."

The case was one of "sextortion" as Coban had reached out to the Port Coquitlam teenager starting in 2009 and said he had sexually explicit photos of her. Coban demanded the teen put on a "show" for him and perform lewd acts on webcam or else he would send her photos to everyone she knew, stressing her parents and friends would see them.

Amanda Todd made a video on YouTube, now with nearly 15 million views, detailing what Coban did to her. In seventh grade, she had started streaming mostly to her friends but a few strangers would join and after several compliments, they encouraged the child to flash the webcam, which she did. Coban was one of those strangers and screen captured the moment, only to threaten her with the images later. He confirmed that he knew her address as well as the personal information of her friends and relatives.

Todd refused to perform for Coban and the Dutchman then sent the child's nude image to everyone she knew. Over the next two years, Todd's life fell into depression, drug use, and even continued harassment from Coban, as he later made a fake Facebook account to again distribute her nude image.

After failing to commit suicide by drinking bleach when she was in 10th grade, she succeeded a few months later by hanging herself.

CityNews reports that cheers rang out in the court when Coban was found guilty and that Amanda’s mother "smiled through tears as the jury confirmed the verdict was unanimous."

The New York Post reports that Coban was convicted of similar crimes in Amsterdam involving both young girls and gay men and used the same mode of operation. He would communicate with his victims and establish some degree of trust and then solicit nude images from them. Soon after he would threaten to send the images to their friends and family and would do exactly that in almost all of the cases, just as he did with Amanda Todd.