WARNING: This story contains embarrassing details and may affect those who have been targeted for sex blackmail or know someone affected by it.
“Mom, what are we going to do?”
Carol Todd recalled the words of Amanda Todd on Tuesday, when she faced the second day of the trial against the man accused of extortion and harassment of her daughter.
It was November 2011, less than a year before Amanda Todd died of suicide. The teenager’s parents were divorced and Amanda was staying with Carol Todd at her home.
“I heard a scream and Amanda ran downstairs and asked her if there was a problem,” Todd said.
Amanda showed her a Facebook profile for a user named Austin Collins. The attached photo is by Amanda Todd.
“She showed me a profile with an image of her bare breasts as a profile image,” Todd recalls.
“I remember some form of message that came up in some way. It was because this profile befriended Amanda’s friends who knew Amanda to share her image again.
Carol Todd remembered her daughter’s questions.
“Why is this happening?” Now he was afraid again of what it would be like to go back to school, “Todd said.
“So she was worried and I was upset.
“I won’t know what he’s doing”
The scene was one of many that Todd relived on the witness stand as he finished his testimony at the British Columbia Supreme Court in New Westminster.
She was the first witness to testify in a trial that is expected to last seven weeks. Immediately after her testimony, her ex-husband Norm climbed.
Carol Todd was Amanda Todd’s mother. She was the first witness in the trial of Aidan Coban, who was accused of blackmailing Amanda Todd from 2009 to 2012. (TELUS Originals)
Aydin Koban, the man accused of sexually blackmailing Amanda Todd, pleaded not guilty to five counts, including extortion, harassment and possession of child pornography.
Prosecutors say he is the man behind a number of fake social media accounts used to harass a teenager on camera from 2009 to 2012, starting when she was 13 years old.
Interrogated by both the Crown and the defense, Carol Todd went back and forth in the years leading up to and including the death of her daughter.
She was shown pictures of Amanda Todd’s bedroom taken after she took her own life, the teenager’s laptop and phone sitting on a black-and-white blanket lying on her bed.
A photo of Amanda Todd’s bedroom shows her laptop and phone on a black-and-white blanket. The items were confiscated by the police after her death. (Supreme Court BC)
Todd talks about the difficulties in trying to deal with a child’s access to the Internet and social media in a separate home; watches as disturbing images and messages appear in the chat, trying to make a conversation, after which he finds himself blocked by Amanda’s show.
“It’s like literally turning off access to her social media so I don’t know what she’s doing,” Todd said at one point.
“You only notice it if you try to gain access to viewing and then you can’t see.”
1279 friends on Facebook
In a cross-examination, Todd admitted that the RCMP had advised Amanda to leave social media after the family met with investigators to discuss the threats surrounding the publication of the teen’s graphic images online.
“At first she refused, but then, with her father’s consent, we were able to convince her to turn it off,” Todd said.
Amanda Todd’s Facebook profile is seen in evidence presented at the trial against the Dutchman Aydin Koban, who is accused of blackmailing her. Prosecutors claim that Koban used a set of fake identities on social networks to harass the teenager. (Supreme Court BC)
“Did that go on?” Coban’s lawyer, Joseph Solnier, asked.
“It lasted a few months, and then we gradually allowed her to re-enter her world on Facebook,” Todd said.
The defense attorney asked Todd about the huge number of Facebook friends the teenager had – a total of 1,279 at one time.
“She doesn’t know all these people personally, I guess,” Solnier said.
“No, don’t,” Todd said.
Coban was extradited from the Netherlands to Canada in 2020 to face trial for blackmailing Amanda Todd.
The crown says it expects to call evidence and police witnesses – including Dutch investigators – to prove that electronic devices seized from Coban’s home contain data linking him to 22 fake usernames and social media accounts that they tortured Amanda Todd.
What did you see when you clicked?
Norm Todd took the position in the afternoon. He said he had tried to leave behind the events of the time that led to his daughter’s death and had difficulty remembering the finer details of what had happened.
Amanda Todd came to live with Norm Todd in an apartment after he left the family home.
Amanda Todd died from suicide in October 2012. A video she made about cyberbullying before she took her own life went viral in the months after her death. (YouTube)
He said her online life was a “main focus” for her and that “she got scared” when he tried to cut off her internet access.
Todd also remembered that she showed him messages to prove that someone was “stalking her online – the pedophile.”
“They were about exposing her online, or sending her to schools, friends and other things … blackmailing her … threatening her,” Todd said. “She was scared and panicked… she didn’t know what she could do about it.
Norm Todd said he also received messages from unknown sources about his daughter, with links to graphic images. He said he clicked on one.
“What did you see when you clicked?” Crown Prosecutor Louise Kenworthy asked.
“One of the connections showed my daughter exposure,” Todd said. “Lifting her top.”
In cross-examination, Todd admitted that his daughter may have told police she knew she shouldn’t do what people told her online and that she didn’t feel threatened.
“She stopped going to school at all.”
The court also released copies of reports received from Carol Todd on Tuesday, containing links to graphic images of Amanda Todd.
“Amanda (Michelle) Todd was still showing off naked and having sex on camera and instant messaging in front of countless complete strangers until last week,” said one sent in November 2011.
“She is a minor (14 years old), which means she willingly produces live child porn.”
Carol Todd testified that her daughter stopped going to school in the fall of 2011 after her topless profile picture appeared on Facebook.
“She stopped going to school altogether out of fear and anxiety of being in front of her peers,” she said.
In a cross-examination, Coban’s lawyers suggested that Amanda Todd may have had other reasons for wanting to change schools.
Carol Todd said a traumatic event involving a boy earlier in the fall had caused post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety.
She did not specify the nature of the incident, but disputed the claim that it was not related to the messages Amanda received online.
Norm Todd repeated this, saying that Amanda Todd and some friends at school had conflicts over jealousy, which may have played a role in her desire to change schools.
But he said “something number one is a pedophile thing.”
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