Amanda Todd’s mom urges more jail time for tormentor as Dutch court mulls sentence

WASHINGTON — The mother of B.C. teenager Amanda Todd, who was bullied into suicide by a Dutch national, said she’ll be “so angry” if a court in Amsterdam doesn’t give him significant extra jail time on the basis of his Canadian conviction last year.

Judges at the Amsterdam District Court said earlier Thursday they would rule in two weeks on the conversion of the 13-year sentence for Aydin Coban, who was convicted of extorting and harassing Amanda.

Her mother, Carol Todd, who was in Washington, D.C., to speak to a group campaigning against child exploitation, said the Dutch process is part of a “never-ending story,” a remark echoing a message held up by Amanda in a YouTube video describing her ordeal before she died in 2012.

Todd said the timing of the latest hearing, a week after Amanda’s birthday, has been difficult, but she will continue to raise awareness of online predators driven by “a mother’s love and a mother’s passion” to keep other children safe.

“It brings Amanda’s story up to the forefront, and it allows other parents to revisit Amanda’s story and talk to their kids about it,” she said about the ongoing legal process.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever feel that there was enough justice done for Amanda if her predator doesn’t get any more prison time.”

Coban was already serving an 11-year Dutch sentence for cyberbullying more than 30 other victims when he was sent to Canada to stand trial in the Todd case, on the condition he serve any sentence in the Netherlands.

Coban’s lawyers said he should get no extra time in a Dutch prison for the Todd case, while prosecutors say Coban should serve about 4 1/2 years of his Canadian sentence in the Netherlands.

Carol Todd noted “everyone agreed that he would come to Canada to have a trial, and so the sentencing should stand. Otherwise, why did they send him to Canada, right?”

The Canadian sentence must be converted in order to conform with Dutch rules.

Coban blackmailed 15-yearold Amanda to expose herself in front of a webcam. She took her own life after recounting her ordeal in the YouTube video that has been watched by millions around the world.

The Amsterdam court said it would deliver its sentencing judgment on Dec. 21. It can be appealed in the Dutch Supreme Court.

THE CANADIAN PRESS Carol Todd holds a photo of her late daughter Amanda Todd, who died by suicide in 2012, and the necklace she was wearing in the school photo outside B.C. Supreme Court after sentencing for the Dutchman accused of extorting and harassing her daughter, in New Westminster, in October 2022.