Warning: This story contains graphic content; reader discretion is advised.
Prosecutors in the "sextortion" trial involving Port Coquitlam student Amanda Todd spent this morning (Wednesday) focusing on the pressure the teenager faced in the fall of 2011.
On the second day of the Crown Counsel’s closing address, Kristen LeNoble spoke about how a Facebook user named Tyler Boo mocked and taunted Todd, who at the age of 11 exposed herself online.
On Oct. 21, just before Todd turned 14, Tyler Boo demanded three peep shows from her or he would send video content of her naked to her Facebook friends.
At first, Todd said she didn’t care; however, the next day, she wrote on her Facebook wall: “He sent the picture out. If you get the picture im asking everyone to not send it. Tell your parents or call the police, people are doing that right now! please.”
LeNoble told Justice Martha Devlin and the jury at the BC Supreme Court in New Westminster that Todd and Tyler Boo exchanged heated chats for two hours that day.
At the end, he threatened her again. “All these things that you have been doing in the past two hours won’t stop the shit storm from coming. still time to stop it,” Tyler Boo wrote, ordering the three shows “and it all goes away.”
Crown Counsel said they will prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Aydin Coban of the Netherlands was behind 22 fake aliases. Coban has pleaded not guilty to five charges.
Fighting back
Walking the jury through the timeline, LeNoble said Tyler Boo turned up the heat on Todd on Oct. 24.
When Tyler Boo shared the video and stills links with five of her Facebook friends, she lashed out via Facebook.
Todd wrote to the user, “Go ahead pedofile. send my pictures but I hope you feel guilty that you are ruining a young girls life and you are fucking sick, that [I] did absolutely nothing to you. I hope you feel like shit after you did that. It’s gonna be hard for me to show my face because before you make me lose everything: school, family, friends and cheer but this time I have friends that are actually gonna be there for me all through this.”
LeNoble said police testimony revealed Todd was upset and frustrated when they visited her at her father’s home in Maple Ridge, and the emotional impact of the "sextortion" was significant.
By Oct. 27, Tyler Boo was back with two more video stills of Todd, which he shared with Todd and the five friends. “What is your hand doing in your panties” and “Nice green thong too” were his comments.
The next day, Tyler Boo warned Todd that a child protection agency would be contacting the police about her online activities unless she submitted to the peep shows. “You have until the end of the day before all hell breaks loose,” the user wrote.
Again, Todd posted her sentiments on her Facebook wall. “So he sent my pictures out to a few people and is going to do it to everybody on Monday. he is actually really sick,” she wrote in part. “I’m feeling like shit, that he’s gonna ruin my life.”
She also begged her Facebook friends not to judge her for her past mistakes.
On Oct. 29, an account user named Marc Camerons entered the scene, LeNoble said.
Todd responded with yet another status update and a link to Tyler Boo’s Facebook page. “Block him. This is Tyler Boo. He is a sick pedofile and is blackmailing me.... Please help me. This is such a horrible feeling for me.”
The next day, LeNoble said, 14 people received video and image links of Todd naked.
School contact
On Nov. 1, administrators at her Maple Ridge school also got an email from someone named Katie Hutchkins about Todd’s online content; a link to the porn site motherless.com, as well as three image links, were attached, which the sender encouraged the recipients to click.
That email was followed up the same day with a Facebook message from a user named Monica Stewart to Todd’s mother, Carol, and 15 of Todd’s Facebook friends, with the same links as what Katie Hutchkins provided to Westview Secondary.
Monica Stewart reached out again to Carol on Nov. 6. “I am under the impression that her family doesn’t care about this so I am preparing to send the information to the authorities like the last time which will be a bit messier….”
By then, LeNoble said, Todd’s school attendance had dropped and Todd was seeking more help after a user named Austin Collins, who was posing as a future Westview student, was directly contacting her friends via Facebook.
On Nov. 12, Austin Collins — who by then had gained 145 friends, half of which were Todd's — posted on his Facebook wall, as well as others’ walls: “They sent me a video and picture of Amanda Todd flashing her boobs and rubbing her pussy on cam sites, that she has even more xrated videos masturbating with her legs spread. wtf?”
He also posted new image links of Todd and a link to motherless.com.
Meanwhile, Austin Collins continued to poke Todd online, LeNoble said. “well, was fun, enjoy the shitfest, ill be watching you, talk to you soon for the same question,” the user wrote. “and to quote Arnie, I will be back.”
Again, LeNoble said, Todd apologized to her Facebook community for the links Austin Collins sent and explained the background.
Prosecutor Marcel Daigle will provide the second of the Crown Counsel’s five closing arguments, focusing in on the message content from one operator of 22 aliases.
None of the allegations is proven in court.
The trial continues.
