Aydin Coban
Aydin Coban
Aydin Coban is a man from the Netherlands. He is infamous for the alleged online harassment that led to the suicide of Amanda Todd in October 2012.
Amanda Todd (Viral Video & Suicide)
On September 7, 2012, a 15-year-old girl named Todd posted a 9-minute YouTube video entitled My Story: Struggling, bullying, suicide and self-harm, which showed her using a series of flash cards to tell of her experiences being bullied and sextorted online. The video post went viral after her death on October 10, 2012, receiving over 1.6 million views by October 13, 2012, with news websites from around the world linking to it.
During the video, Todd writes that when she was in grade 7 (2009/2010), around the same time she moved in with her dad, she used video chat to meet new people online. Several people complimented her on her looks. One of these people eventually convinced Todd to show her breasts on camera, following one year of attempts at having her do so. The individual later blackmailed her with threats of providing the topless photo to her friends unless she gave him a "show".
According to Todd, during her Christmas 2010 break, police informed her at 4:00 a.m. that her topless photo was circulating on the Internet.
Subsequently, she experienced anxiety, depression, and panic disorder due to her experiences of being sexually exploited online and being cyber bullied.
A year later, after Amanda Todd moved to a new school, the individual reappeared.
He created a Facebook profile in which her topless photograph was the profile image. He contacted classmates at her new school and Todd was teased, eventually changing schools for a second time.
Several other incidents took place, many of which took place online.
Several people participated in acts of cyber bullying.
A Facebook group was created to make fun of the fact that she attempted to commit suicide by drinking bleach.
She was also punched in the face by a girl whose boyfriend had sex with her while she was on holiday.
On October 10, 2012, just over one month after posting her YouTube video, Amanda Todd was found dead in her home at about 6:00 PM (PDT).
Arrest
In January 2014, Dutch media organization Omroep Brabant published an article identifying Amanda Todd as one of the victims of a cyber-exploitation arrest made in the Netherlands. The journalist who broke the story in the Netherlands, Mathijs Pennings, told news sources that the man arrested is a Dutch national, who is accused of blackmailing numerous minors after recording their webcam activities. He is also alleged to have extorted older male victims for money.
There was a total of 34 victims related to the case, one of them being Amanda Todd and 5 of them being older men who identified as gay.
His alleged victims include individuals from Europe, the U.K., Norway and Canada.
It was eventually confirmed by international news sources that, on January 13, 2014, Aydin Coban was arrested and charged with the sextortion and online harassment of B.C. teenager Amanda Todd.
In Canada, the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) accounted Aydin Coban of five charges in a separate case:
Possession of child pornography
Extortion
Internet luring
Criminal harassment
Distribution of child pornography
Coban was 35 when he got arrested.
Open Letter (Transcript)
This is an open letter to all concerned.
I'm writing this in the English language because it's a case with international coverage.
The judge has been notified and has received it as well.
First off, I'm innocent.
I'm not the so called tormentor of Miss Amanda Todd or of anyone else for that matter.
I've been in jail exactly a year now for things I haven't done.
To this day I haven't been directly charged with the case of Miss Amanda Todd.
Yet the worldwide media and their audience have been branding me as the monster behind it.
They pretend to be the judge, the jury and the executioners while committing character assassination by orchestrating a hate campaign against an individual on a scale rarely seen.
A fair trail has been made impossible.
I've made use of my right to remain silent so far because it was clear from the beginning persecution and the police were blinded by their tunnel vision.
They tried to twist the few things I did say by taking them out of context.
But now worldwide so many blatant lies are being sold as the truth and repeated ad absurdum that I've decided to write this open letter.
I've written the following based on the explanations of ICT experts, the so called Facebook Security report and the case file.
The Facebook Security Report
Prosecution's foundation for their case is a report by Facebook which has been shown to us (my attorney C.T.W. van Oyle and I ). More about this shady report later on.
These are some of the points mentioned in it and what the investigations confirm.
Facebook claims late October 2011 (almost a year earlier than the media suggests) Miss Amanda Todd received threatening messages which Facebook and prosecution link to a certain I.P. address.
It seemingly belongs to the router of what is said to be my alleged neighbour supposedly living at a fair distance.
It seems the alleged neighbour's router is easily accessible to anyone in its vicinity and the router's lay of MAC addresses showed many people did access it recently.
So it can't be guaranteed who did what through that I.P. address at any given time because so many people connected with it.
The police has claimed late October 2011, exactly when those alleged messages were sent to Miss Amanda Todd on Facebook I was living in another city far away from that router.
Home owners have stated from early 2011 until late 2012 (almost 2 years uninterrupted) I was renting and living in their houses located in other cities.
Therefore in that crucial period I couldn't have had access to that specific router which Facebook and prosecution link to those and other Facebook messages.
It would mean I was too far away to be able to connect with that router.
These and other assumptions concerning that I.P. address and router during 2011 and 2012 when according to the police and home owners I was living in other cities show how prosecution and Facebook mistakingly assumed I'd lived at that one address non-stop for 3 or 4 years, which wasn't the case according to the investigations.
They found out about their wrong assumption at least weeks after my arrest.
Facebook seems to be very selective in what they are willing to show.
It would be very easy to put together a proper timeline of events if Facebook released all information they claim to have yet refuse to show.
For instance, this case seems to revolve around a vigilante threatening a group of paedophile men (judging by the Facebook aspect) with unmasking them and reporting them to the authorities.
I'm suspected of being that vigilante (which is false).
Yet Facebook refuses to name them or show how they are linked.
And this goes for all things mentioned in their report.
A report is fully founded or not.
It's complete or not.
This Facebook Security report used by prosecution as their foundation is poorly founded and incomplete.
It's a report based on hearsay and cherrypicking.
A reliable report would not exclude data relevant to the case.
We will (again) look for a completely report by Facebook.
The Dutch National police infecting computers
The police astonishingly admitted (among other things) they infect computers of Dutch citizens with secretive tools, including computers they claim to be mine.
ICT experts question the legality of these tools and work against the dangers.
In short, anyone can be framed that way.
The police claim the tools used are lawful yet refuse to name them.
From the few cryptic descriptions they gave and evasive and different answers given by prosecution when asked about those tools it can be said they described the tools deceptively.
Those tools need to be examined by an independent expert to determine what those tools are and what can be done with them.
After using requests they only released a genetic report about 1 tool, Technische Hulpmiddel or technical assisting tool.
Nothing is mentioned about its functions or capabilities.
The codename they give that tool is THv030+102 softwareversie 1.68 without any other details.
If it's allowed by law why be so secretive about it?
Why keep changing the description?
Why not mention what exactly is possible with it?
At least 4 different tools were named, where are their reports?
We will (again) ask for an independent expert to be appointed by the investigating judge to examine the tools.
There is more but I'll mention those in court.
All I wanted to say for now is in this open letter.
I ask of you to refrain from flooding my attorney with questions unless you have vital information to share.
In the meantime, I'll keep on spending my days productively.
Although obviously I'd prefer living my normal life outside, in detention I've had interesting experiences, met diverse people with colorful life stories, read many books, gave guitar lessons and so forth.
I've been documenting everything in detail since my arrest on the 13th of January 2014.
Should be a good read.
Thanks, Ayden.
Trial (Dutch Court)
During his trial the Netherlands, the Court in Hague heard Coban used dozens of aliases during his chats with underaged kids.
These names included “Tyler Boo” and “Kelsy Rain.”
He also had a computer program that fooled young girls into thinking they were chatting live to a girl of a similar age.
The court also heard investigators found some 204,000 images on CD's that belonged to Coban.
Ruling
On March 16, 2017, the Dutch Court sentenced Aydin Coban to 10 years and 243 days in prison for online fraud and blackmail in relation to the abuse of 34 young women and men.
This was the maximum sentence that prosecutors were seeking.
Related Pages:
Amanda Todd