UPDATE: 6:30 p.m. British Columbia teenager Amanda Todd feared that the person who was harassing and extorting her would continue for the rest of her life, and there was nothing she could do to stop it, a Crown attorney told B.C. Supreme Court on Wednesday. Kristen LeNoble showed the court a Facebook post that Todd wrote shortly after the harasser shared sexualized images of her, saying, “I feel so sad, I feel so sick.” The teen from Port Coquitlam, who died nearly a decade ago, had previously written a post asking people to support her, and not judge her, as she feared her harasser was about to distribute content depicting her in a sexual manner, she said. “This is such a horrible feeling for me,” LeNoble read from one of Todd’s posts. She told the jury trial for Aydin Coban, the Dutch man accused of extorting Todd, that the person had been threatening to distribute links to her family, friends and classmates unless she performed a series of sexual “shows” on a web camera. Coban has pleaded not guilty to extortion, harassment, communication with a young person to commit a sexual offence and possessing child pornography. At one point, one of the numerous aliases used to extort Todd sent a message telling her she had until the end of the day “until all hell breaks loose,” LeNoble said. The person also threatened to report Todd to child-protection authorities, she said. LeNoble said Todd had written a Facebook post urging people to block one of the harasser’s accounts, saying it was a “sick pedophile” who was blackmailing her. The teen wrote, “He will send you a link of me, of what I did that was very stupid, but people make mistakes,” she said. Todd implored people not to share any content they may receive, she said. “I’m like bawling my eyes out,” said LeNoble, reading from the post. LeNoble told the jury on Tuesday that by the time the Crown has finished its closing argument, it will have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Coban was the person behind 22 separate online aliases used to harass and extort Todd. Later Wednesday, attorney Marcel Daigle moved to the next phase of the Crown’s argument to prove that one person was behind all of the accounts. Daigle showed the jury examples of messages that Todd received from different usernames on multiple online platforms, including Facebook, YouTube and Gmail, some of which were “word for word the same” and sent on the same day. LeNoble told the court Todd had also pushed back against her harasser, sending them a message saying she hoped they felt guilty for “ruining a young girl’s life.” She showed the jury messages the harasser had exchanged on Facebook with several people Todd was connected with on the site, including one male friend who expressed interest in viewing sexualized images of the teen. The harasser shared a link to a pornography website, and Todd’s Facebook friend responded, “Sick, thanks bro,” LeNoble said. The extortion began just before Todd turned 13 in November 2009, she said. Crown prosecutor Louise Kenworthy told the jury at the start of the trial almost two months ago that Todd had been the victim of a persistent campaign of online “sextortion” over three years before her death at age 15 in October 2012. The Crown is expected to continue its arguments for the rest of the week. ORIGINAL: 6:45 a.m. B.C. teenager Amanda Todd said on Facebook that a “pedophile” had been blackmailing her for years, as she warned people about an account she said the perpetrator operated, a Crown attorney told B.C. Supreme Court. In closing arguments at the trial of Dutchman Aydin Coban, Kristen LeNoble told the jury that Todd made the post shortly before receiving a message from another Facebook user demanding she perform sexual “shows” on camera, or videos of her exposing her breasts would be sent to her family and classmates. The teenager from Port Coquitlam, B.C., had recently moved in with her father in a nearby community and started attending a new school, LeNoble said. Coban has pleaded not guilty to extortion, harassment, communication with a young person to commit a sexual offence and possessing child pornography. LeNoble began closing arguments Tuesday by telling the jurors the Crown would spend the next few days helping them “unpack” the significant amount of evidence, including testimony from more than 30 witnesses and binders full of 80 exhibits. By the time they were finished, she said, the Crown would have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Coban was the person behind 22 separate online aliases used to extort Todd over several years before she died almost a decade ago. Some of the messages feigned support and tried to build a trusting relationship with Todd, while others threatened to ruin her life, LeNoble told the jury. LeNoble showed the jury a message the harasser sent to Todd’s family and school administrators while posing as a member of a child protection agency, which included a link to a pornography website displaying a video of the teenager. She described how another alias on Facebook was used to send messages with the same link to 99 users from Todd’s friends list on the social networking site. The harassment began just before Todd turned 13 in November 2009, she said. “Enough nice-guy act,” said LeNoble, reading from one of the messages where the harasser threatened to publicly distribute a video of Todd exposing her breasts. “You’re gonna do as you are told … I already have 17 people in your family, 52 schoolmates and teachers of your school through their official site. I can send them this instant, together with child protection agencies, who will go after you,” she read. “Your life will never be the same … Or you do as I say, and after 10 shows, where you do as I say, I disappear, like nothing happened,” read the message that LeNoble called a “real sledgehammer of a harassing, extorting and luring message.” Crown prosecutor Louise Kenworthy told the jury at the start of the trial almost two months ago that Todd had been the victim of a persistent campaign of online “sextortion” over three years before her death at age 15 in October 2012. Carol Todd testified that her daughter was scared when she brought messages to her attention, and Amanda’s distress increased with each incident. LeNoble showed the jury a message Amanda had sent to her cousin and other people she knew after the video of her exposing her breasts had been distributed. In the message, Amanda said she had “flashed” about “200 guys” on YouTube the year before because they were “begging” and she “thought it wouldn’t matter.” The message shows the teenager then wrote she had “wrecked” her life with that video because of the harassment and extortion that followed.
