The trial of a Dutch man accused of sexually harassing and extorting BC teenager Amanda Todd before taking his own life in 2012 continued on Tuesday, with disturbing testimony from the girl’s parents.
Carol Todd explained on the second day of the trial how she heard her daughter “scream” and ran down on November 12, 2011.
The teen had discovered a Facebook account that used a topless image of her as a profile picture, her mother said. The account had befriended several friends and acquaintances of Amanda’s at Westview Secondary in Maple Ridge, he added.
A photo of Amanda Todd came in as evidence at the trial of Aydin Coban. BC Prosecutor’s Office
“Mom, what are we going to do, why is this happening?” it was Amanda’s answer, Carol testified. “She was scared of what it would be like to go back to school again, so she was anxious. And I was anxious with her.”
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A day earlier, Crown read numerous social media posts alleging that Aydin Coban sent Amanda with 22 fake accounts between 2009 and 2012 as part of a “sextortion” campaign against her. Coban has pleaded not guilty to five counts of felony criminal mischief, including extortion, possession of child pornography and harassment. He was extradited to Canada to stand trial in 2020.
Among the messages submitted on Monday was a YouTube message in April 2011 demanding that Amanda give 30-minute “live shows” via a webcam or that the sender “also” his “life” on Westview Secondary “.
Carol told the court Tuesday that after Amanda found her Facebook account with her explicit picture, she began to stay home and in December had “stopped going to school because of fear and anxiety. ‘to be in front of his peers’. In January, Carol said, she changed schools.
Read more: BC teenager charged with cyberbullying Amanda Todd pleads not guilty
During cross-examination, defense attorney Joseph Saulnier questioned that timeline, suggesting that Amanda had withdrawn almost completely from Westview at least a month before the Facebook account was discovered due to a traumatic incident involving a boy unrelated to the alleged “sextortion.”
Saulnier referred to a statement Carol gave police two days after Amanda’s suicide in which she said her daughter had probably dropped out of school in October 2011. In response, Carol said that statement was probably more accurate than her memory now, and that Amanda hadn’t. he told her about an incident as a child.
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1:58 Amanda Todd has left a legacy of cyberbullying education Amanda Todd has left a legacy of cyberbullying education
Amanda’s father, Norm Todd, also intervened, describing how his daughter came to him with threatening messages she had received after she moved out of her mother’s house to live with him in 2010.
“He brought the messages that someone was chasing him online, the pedophile,” he told the court.
“It was about her exposing herself online or being sent to her schools and friends and stuff, so they blackmailed her, threatening her.
Norm said some of the messages contained web links, including one that led to a video of Amanda getting up and exposing her breasts.
“I was scared and a little panicked. I didn’t know what to do about it,” she said.
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“She moved schools, but the Internet is everywhere,” Carol Todd said of her daughter’s inability to escape the aftermath of an online bullying campaign. @GlobalBC pic.twitter.com/UjKme1UXMP
– Simon Little (@simonplittle) June 7, 2022
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Social media “a main focus for” Amanda
Throughout Tuesday’s testimony, the court heard from both parents about the importance of social media for their daughter.
“I think it was a very important part, a main focus for her,” Norm said, adding that she spent a lot of time chatting online.
At one point in the cross-examination, Carol rejected the defense’s suggestion that it was “impossible” to keep Amanda off the Internet.
“I wouldn’t say it was impossible to keep it off the Internet. There were parameters that were set. But it often went beyond those parameters.”
Carol said she and Norm had tried to align their rules on internet use, but that “it often didn’t work that way” and that Amanda had more access to her father’s house.
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Carol told the court how, during a meeting with police following a sextort incident in December 2010, Mounties suggested to Amanda that she stop going to social media.
This break lasted a few months, her mother said, before she and Amanda’s father allowed her to re-enter her Facebook world.
Mounties also recommended that he delete people he didn’t know from his more than 1,000 Facebook friends, Carol said. Her daughter has deleted some, she added, but not all.
Norm told the court that he had tried several ways to limit Amanda’s online activity, but that it was difficult, as social media was one of her most important places for social activity.
“It simply came to our notice then. At times, I gave her a little confidence if she followed the rules, “she said. When she cut her, she said Amanda was” scared. “
Conversations with Amanda about restricting access or adding parental controls often spark discussions, she said in cross-examination, testifying that her daughter once “ran away” from her mother’s home in the fall of 2011 after she was removed. the mobile and the Internet. .
On Monday, Carol described the first knowledge of the harassment campaign against her daughter when a Facebook account called “Alice McAllister” sent her a link to an explicit video of Amanda a few days before Christmas 2010.
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The Facebook message Carol Todd received days before Christmas 2010, which included a link to an explicit video of her daughter. Crown alleges that Aydin Coban sent the message under one of 22 fake social media profiles. BC Prosecutor’s Office
Carol went on to detail how her daughter’s mental health declined over the following months, amid threatening messages and subsequent school bullying associated with the bullying campaign.
Crown has alleged that Coban was involved in a four-year “sextortion” campaign against the girl.
Prosecutor Louise Kenworthy told the 12-person jury that the evidence would show that the 22 social media accounts were managed by one person and that person is Coban, and that in several cases, Coban actually sent links to the explicit material. to many people, such as family, classmates, and school administrators.
Her defense has yet to present its initial arguments, but lawyer Saulnier told reporters outside the court on Monday that while there is no doubt that Amanda was a victim of crime, Crown must prove that his client he was the one who committed them and that the evidence of the prosecution. supposedly linking your customer to online messages was not strong.
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Read more: BC judge rules Amanda Todd’s name may be reported during cyberbullying trial
Shortly before she died of suicide, Amanda, then 15, posted a video on YouTube showing herself silently holding a series of flashcards depicting the torment she suffered. It gained worldwide attention and became a war cry against cyberbullying.
In the video, she described how someone in an online chat room asked her to expose her breasts and how she later received messages from a man who threatened to post intimate photos of her if she didn’t “put on a show.” .
The trial is set to last seven weeks.
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