Dutch court sentences Aydin Coban, convicted in Amanda Todd case, to 6 years
Posted December 21, 2023 6:34 am.
Last Updated December 21, 2023 8:30 pm.
Content warning: This article deals with the subject of suicide. If you or a loved one is at risk of self-harm, the BC Crisis Centre can be reached at 1-800-784-2433. Translation services are available.
The sentence for a Dutch man, who was convicted in B.C. of charges in the Amanda Todd case, was cut Thursday by an Amsterdam court from 13 years to six.
Aydin Coban wasn’t present in Amsterdam District Court for a brief hearing to announce the sentence. His lawyer, Robert Malewicz, said he would appeal the decision to the Dutch Supreme Court.
Coban was extradited from the Netherlands to Canada in 2020 to stand trial on charges linked to Amanda, who took her own life in 2012 at the age of 15 after posting a video that described being tormented by an online harasser.
He was sent to Canada on condition that his sentence would be served in a Dutch prison. That also meant that prison time imposed by the B.C. Supreme Court last year had to be converted into a sentence in the Netherlands.
‘Six is really good’: Amanda Todd’s mother reacts to Dutch sentencing
Amanda’s mother, Carol Todd, told CityNews shortly after the Dutch sentence was announced, saying she had learned about the decision upon waking up.
She says she’s not upset with the term he’s been handed in the Netherlands.
“I’m processing the information and as much as others will be disappointed because you did get 13 years in a Canadian sentence, six years in Dutch terms is really, really good,” Carol said Thursday.
“I’m really glad that, as it stands now, he will get six extra years in prison and he’ll be off the streets to not harm others. I think that international sentencing laws, of course, are different in every country. But going into this when the Canadian trial ended, and any hearing that he could get zero years, six is really good.”
In July, Dutch prosecutors said the Canadian sentence should be cut to four-and-a-half years, in line with sentencing guidelines in the Netherlands and time he had spent in tough conditions in a Canadian jail.
The court ruling didn’t take into account his time behind bars in Canada and sentenced him to the maximum possible six years.
“Even with the Canadian sentence, we thought that he would only get half of what prosecution asked and our judges went further up the scale. And so, when you look at it in perspective, the news had come out that he might get zero because of Dutch laws,” Carol explained.
“Prosecution asked for four and a half [years] out there, and then the judges went above and did six. So in that way, it’s really good. Would I like to see him go away forever? Probably. But we don’t live in countries with those kinds of rules. So six is better than than nothing. And I’m pleased with that.”
Carol, who has been advocating for legal changes to better protect young people since her daughter’s death in Port Coquitlam more than a decade ago, says she feels Coban’s sentence “sets some precedents.”
“This will, of course, make headlines around the world and this is good for other countries to see what Canada and the Netherlands have done, right?” she told CityNews.
Coban is currently serving an 11-year sentence in the Netherlands after being convicted on similar charges to the ones he faced in B.C. but involving the online extortion of 33 young girls and gay men. The sentence imposed Thursday will be served after he completes his current prison time next year.
Malewicz, Coban’s lawyer, had called the Canadian sentence “exorbitantly high, even by Canadian standards” and said the Dutch man shouldn’t get any extra prison time. However, he said if the court decided to give him prison time, it should be no more than one year with six months suspended.
“We will go to the Supreme Court,” he told reporters after Thursday’s brief hearing.
Despite these plans to appeal the sentence, Carol says that will still take some time — and the decision by the judge is still enough to hopefully bring about change.
“Another good one for the issues at hand online to protect young people. And so maybe for those reasons, I’m happy to see that because, as you know, this case … it went global and it’s unprecedented,” the mother said.
“It took 10 years. That’s a long time for anyone to have to go through this, but for me, it was worth waiting for. I would have been disappointed if I had heard zero years or even one year, so the six is good.”
Todd’s suicide brought the problem of cyberbullying to mainstream attention in Canada after the B.C. teen posted a video on YouTube in which she used handwritten signs to describe how she was lured by a stranger to expose her breasts on a webcam.
The picture ended up on a Facebook page, to which her friends were added.
She was repeatedly bullied, despite changing schools, before taking her own life weeks after posting the video.
Last year, a jury in B.C. convicted Coban of all charges he faced, including communication with a young person to commit a sexual offence and possession and distribution of child pornography.
Sentencing Coban last year, Canadian Justice Martha Devlin said that the “serious impact of the offences on Amanda was obvious to Mr. Coban and would have been obvious to anyone at the time.”
She added that “ruining Amanda’s life was Mr. Coban’s expressly stated goal. Sadly, one that he achieved.”
-With files from Sonia Aslam
