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Judge sentences B.C. teen Amanda Todd’s online tormentor to
13 years in prison
By Simon Little Global News
Posted October 14, 2022 12:43 pm
Updated October 14, 2022 3:20 pm
A B.C. Supreme Court judge on Friday sentenced the Dutch man convicted of harassing and extorting B.C. teen Amanda Todd to 13 years in prison — more than prosecutors had asked for.
Justice Martha Devlin took the unusual step of handing down a longer sentence than what Crown counsel had argued for in the case of Aydin Coban, who is already serving a nearly 11-year term in the Netherlands for similar crimes.
“Ruining Amanda’s life was Mr. Coban’s expressly stated goal and was sadly one that he achieved,” Devlin said in delivering her reasons from her New Westminster courtroom.
“Mr. Coban engaged in a prolonged pattern of sextortion targeting Amanda Todd, a child in her early to mid-teens.
“Mr. Coban, relying on a high level of technological sophistication, obfuscated his identity, location and activities, gained information about Amanda valuable to his criminal scheme, and emotionally manipulated Amanda with both friendly inducements and distressing threats. On several occasions, Mr. Coban made good on these threats.”
Prosecutors had sought a 12-year prison term, arguing Coban remained “unrepentant” and a high risk to children.
The 44-year-old’s lawyers, meanwhile, argued his crimes were worth a six-year sentence, which should be further reduced to two years to take into account the 11 years he’s already serving overseas.
However, the Dutch never charged Coban with Amanda Todd's extortion.
A 12-member jury found Coban guilty of criminal harassment, extortion, child luring, and possession and distribution of child pornography in August.
During the nearly two-month trial, court heard that Coban used nearly two dozen online accounts on four platforms to mount what prosecutors called a “persistent campaign of sextortion” against Todd when she was age 12 to age 15.
He obtained a topless video clip of the girl, then used it as leverage to try to force her to perform webcam sex “shows.” When she resisted, he followed through on his threats to send the material to her family, friends and school community three times, the court heard.
Coban sent nearly 700 messages, some from accounts meant to befriend and gain information on the teen or to trick her into further exposing herself, while others were threatening and abusive, promising to “f— up” her life and pursue her as she changed schools amid real-world bullying, court heard.
The sentencing hearing began this week, almost exactly 10 years after Todd took her own life in 2012.
Just weeks before her death, she created a YouTube video where she silently held up cue cards documenting the torment she suffered and its effect on her life. The video went viral and became a symbol in the fight against online harassment.
Coban was arrested at a bungalow in the Netherlands in January 2014, where police seized a variety of computer equipment including hard drives with Todd’s name and fragments of chat logs with her.
He was convicted by a Dutch court in 2017 of dozens of similar offences involving other victims, and sentenced to a prison term due to expire in August 2024.
In 2020, he was extradited to Canada to face trial in the Todd case.
'Nothing short of dangerous': Vuntut Gwitchin calls for public inquiry
into release of sex offender
First Nation chief says Old Crow isn't ready for Chris Schafer's return
CBC News ·
Posted: Oct 11, 2022 10:59 AM CT
The Vuntut Gwitchin government says Yukon's justice system has failed its citizens and put them at risk after the Yukon Territorial Court ordered a sex offender to be released on bail to Old Crow, Yukon.
The First Nation also wants a public inquiry into all the factors that led to the court's decision to release Christopher Russel Schafer.
Schafer, 45, has a criminal history of violent sexual assaults and other assaults spanning more than 20 years, including a vicious attack in Old Crow in 1999. He also has recent charges of assault, forcible confinement and uttering threats in Whitehorse. He is currently still in custody in the Whitehorse Correctional Centre.
On Friday, a Justice of the Peace agreed to a release plan for Schafer that would see him fly to his remote home community of Old Crow.
According to Vuntut Gwitchin Chief Dana Tizya-Tramm, the community was blindsided by that decision. He says the community had one day's notice of Schafer's return.
"I think like many others in our community, my voice escaped me for a minute," Tizya-Tramm said of his reaction to the news of the court order.
"Soon after, my heart dropped because I knew there was going to be a lot of pain — pain for the family, pain across the community."
A road in Old Crow, Yukon pictured on July 22, 2022. A sign reading "Welcome to Old Crow" attached to a log cabin is visible on the right, along with the community's water treatment facility in the background. (Jackie Hong/CBC)
The small town of about 250 people has just two RCMP officers, no doctors and no mental health professionals.
Tizya-Tramm said the court order set the community on edge. The Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation quickly declared a state of emergency to make it illegal for Schafer to set foot on its lands.
The matter was back in court on Tuesday afternoon but left unresolved.
Crown lawyer William McDiarmid told court on Tuesday that the plan for Schafer's release was an "ostensibly reasonable plan" as of last week. The First Nation's emergency order changed that, McDiarmid said.
The Crown argued Tuesday that Schafer should now remain in jail lest he violate either his release plan — which requires him to live at an address in Old Crow — or the First Nation's order banning him from the community.
McDiarmid and defence lawyer Nora Mooney said discussions were underway to figure out an alternate release plan.
Yukon Territorial Court Chief Judge Michael Cozens, before setting Schafer's next court date for Wednesday, said there was "a lot of misinformation out there" about the situation and noted Schafer, as of Friday, hadn't been under any court orders barring him from returning to Old Crow.
There is more to this story on CBC News.
Urgent hunt for man after two schoolgirls, 12,
were sexually assaulted on bus
Sarah Grealish
9:28, 12 Oct 2022
COPS have launched an urgent hunt for a man after two young schoolgirls were sexually assaulted on a bus.
Avon and Somerset Police are appealing to the public for help to identify the culprit after the incident with the 12-year-olds in Bristol.
Cops are hunting this man after two schoolgirls were sexually assaulted
The pair were sexually assaulted by touching by an unknown man on a 48A bus between 7-7.30pm on Tuesday 5 July.
They had been driving at Fishponds Road towards Broadmead.
In a statement, police said: "We continue to provide the victims, who were 12 years old at the time, with access to any support they require.
"CCTV enquiries have been carried out and officers investigating these matters are releasing an image of a man who we want to talk to in connection with these assaults.
"Witnesses or anyone who recognises the man should call 101 and give reference number 5222159882."
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