Amanda Todd trial: RCMP officer testifies about forensic examination of seized devices

The trial of a man accused of sexually extorting Port Coquitlam, B.C., teen Amanda Todd heard from an RCMP officer who conducted a digital forensic examination of the contents of several electronic devices.

The court heard some of the devices were used by Todd, while others were seized by investigators in the Netherlands following the arrest of Aydin Coban. The Dutch citizen has pleaded not guilty to extortion, child luring, harassment, and possession of child pornography.

Sgt. Keith Hack testified he looked at data from devices Todd had used, including her iPhone, as well as data copied from devices seized after Coban’s arrest in January 2014 at a bungalow.

Hack told the court he was looking for “words or names” of interest based on information supplied by investigators.

He testified about examining a hard drive removed from a laptop belonging to Todd’s father Norm, and finding two active user accounts: one named “Norm” and one named “Amanda.”

Hack told the court there was one Skype account used on the hard drive named “cutiielover.”

Hack: “There was a lot of Skype use on this device.”

Crown: “And did it specifically relate to the user account ‘cutiielover’?”

Hack: “Yes.”

Hack also testified about seven devices from the Netherlands which he examined, including two which he told the court he believed had been attached at one point.

For one hard drive, he testified the registered owner name was “I.” He told the court the same capital letter was used for the active user account on the device.

“There was very little if any activity that might identify a specific user of device one,” Hack said, and gave similar testimony regarding a second device, a Hitachi 250 GB hard drive, which he examined. “Looking for what might be common user type of activity, there was just an absence of personal type of activity.”

In an opening statement at the trial’s start, Crown prosecutor Louise Kenworthy told the court they expected Hack would testify about finding messages between Skype accounts used on one or more of the devices and Todd, and that it appeared to him that a lot of information had been deleted.

The Crown alleges Todd was pursued for years by someone with 22 phony accounts, who tried to use explicit images of the teen to get her to perform sex acts online.

Todd died by suicide in 2012 at the age of 15, after sharing a video online outlining years of torment.

Coban’s defence counsel has said the case is about whether the Crown can prove who was behind the messages sent to Todd.

In agreed admissions of fact read out in court, the trial heard officers involved in the investigation after Todd’s death received Facebook records following search warrants obtained by the Department of Homeland Security, and later the FBI.

Hack’s testimony is expected to continue on Tuesday.