Amanda Todd trial: Defence argues allegations not proven beyond reasonable doubt

A lawyer for the man accused of sexually extorting Port Coquitlam, B.C., teen Amanda Todd began closing arguments for the defence by telling the jury it’s their position the Crown has not proven the charges against Aydin Coban beyond a reasonable doubt.

The Dutch citizen has pleaded not guilty to charges of extortion, harassment, child luring, and possession of child pornography.

Defence counsel Joe Saulnier told the jury the main issue in the trial is identity.

“I’ll be addressing the Crown theories on identity, the theory that all of the accounts, all the messages must be one person,” he said. “Just because you find some of the accounts are linked, or even some of the messages authored by the same person does not mean that person was Mr. Coban.”

Saulnier argued while there are “clearly” links between the accounts, “it doesn’t mean it’s a single person. You can have more than one person who knows what’s going on.”

The Crown’s theory is that one person with 22 phony online accounts tried to use explicit photos of the teen to get her to perform sex acts online. Todd died by suicide at the age of 15 in 2012.

Saulnier told the jury there has been “a great deal of” evidence in the trial about Coban repairing computers and replacing hard drives, and added “it’s my submission that this can account for some of the devices in his possession.”

Saulnier said he would not be using the term “sextortionist” as the Crown has done, as there is no specific crime by that name and it is not one of the charges Coban is facing.

“Using that term ‘sextortionist,’ kind of encompasses all of those charges…also by saying ‘the sextortionist’…it’s a way of trying to argue that it’s one person,” Saulnier told the jury. “You have to decide each of the five counts individually.”

Saulnier went over messages written by Todd when discussing the criminal harassment count, and argued the jury should have a reasonable doubt the teen feared for her safety.

“Given the inconsistencies between what she says to the police and what she says publicly, the inconsistencies about what she says she’s going to do with her social media versus what she did,” Saulnier said. “You should have a reasonable doubt on this element of the offence, and you should acquit on the charge of harassment.”

Speaking outside court, Todd’s mother Carol said the defence argument left her feeling frustrated and upset.

“Amanda’s not here to defend herself,” Todd’s mother said. “Listening to part-truths, listening to comments that they make about Amanda and what she was like and her personality, without ever having raised her, without ever having lived with her, without ever parenting her -- that makes me angry.”

Todd’s mother added her daughter was a young teen, who was only 12 years old when the Crown says she began receiving messages as part of what the prosecution termed “a persistent campaign of sextortion”.

“We have to look at developmental brain growth, maturity, processing,” she said. “Do not blame her like an adult when she was just a child.” 

‘TREASURE TROVE’ OF INFORMATION

Lead prosecutor Louise Kenworthy concluded the Crown’s closing arguments Tuesday morning by asking the jury to find the accused guilty on all charges.

Kenworthy told the court the case is circumstantial when it comes to identification, and added jurors have to be satisfied “the only reasonable inference is that Mr. Coban is the person who committed these offences.”

“All roads lead to Mr. Coban,” Kenworthy said. “He is the person who committed these offences. There is no other reasonable inference.”

Kenworthy spent Tuesday morning going over what the Crown alleges are connections between the accused and multiple hard drives seized at a bungalow in the Netherlands where Coban was arrested. She alleged two of the hard drives contained a “treasure trove” of information related to offending online aliases and Todd.

“We have now provided you with many reasons why we say you can be sure Mr. Coban is the person who committed these offences,” Kenworthy argued. “I would suggest that you don’t need to accept all or even most of the inferences we’ve invited you to make…in order to be satisfied that Mr. Coban is the person who committed these offences. This is a clear case.”

Kenworthy told the jury an RCMP witness who examined data from seized devices testified he found evidence a confirmation of notice of termination document that included the name Aydin Coban had existed on a Hitachi hard drive found in the bungalow.

“This existed on (the hard drive) between September 7th and 17th, 2012,” Kenworthy said. “Why would anyone other than Mr. Coban put that document on that device?”

Kenworthy said the officer also testified a Skype account named “kelseyrain2” was used on that hard drive to chat with Todd in December 2011. The Crown has previously alleged Coban was the operator of the “kelseyrain2” account.

Kenworthy said the jury has heard testimony that an examination of data from a Western Digital brand hard drive found in the same box as the Hitachi hard drive showed the “kelseyrain2” Skype profile was also used on that device to chat with Todd’s account in December 2010.

Kenworthy said the jury also heard testimony someone logged into a Facebook account by the name of Alice Mcallister on the Western Digital hard drive. During the trial, Todd’s mother Carol testified about receiving a message from someone with the same name in December 2010, which included a link to an explicit image of her daughter posted on an adult porn site.

Kenworthy added the RCMP officer also testified a Skype account with the word “todd” in the username was used on the Western Digital hard drive. The jury previously heard a Skype account with that name had chatted with Todd in December 2010, at one point telling her “once a week we just do fun stuff on cam is all.”

Kenworthy told the jury the RCMP witness told the court he believed the Western Digital hard drive had been connected to a Maxtor brand hard drive found in the bungalow at one point. She said the witness told the court he had found an employment letter in Coban’s name on the Maxtor hard drive, as well as images of bank statements with Coban’s name on them.

Kenworthy told the jury a Skype account with the name “kelseymeowz” was being used on a hard drive found in a desktop computer at the bungalow five minutes before Coban’s arrest in January 2014. The Crown has previously alleged a connection between that account and accounts associated with the “kelseyrain2” Skype account.

“Mr. Coban is kelseymeowz,” Kenworthy said. Mr. Coban is kelseyrain2.”

The defence did not end up calling any evidence in the trial. The jury heard seven weeks of testimony involving dozens of witnesses prior to the start of closing arguments.