While the Dutch courts have OK’d his extradition, the man facing five charges relating to Amanda Todd still has one more opportunity to challenge the order that would send him to Canada to face charges.
“Everyone’s hoping 2020 is the year, but he is, I think, allowed another appeal, so we’re just holding our breath,” Amanda’s mom, Carol Todd, said Monday.
Amanda Todd drew global attention to cyberbullying when she posted a YouTube video recounting her ordeal.
She later took her own life in October 2012 when she was 15.
Aydin Coban, 40, faces five charges connected to Todd, including extortion, possession of child pornography and attempting to lure a child online.
Read more: Man accused of cyberbullying Amanda Todd gets 11 years in Dutch jail for unrelated case
Coban was already sentenced March 2017 in the Netherlands to 10 years in prison for cyberbullying teen girls and gay men.
If convicted in a B.C. court, he would be sent back to the Netherlands to serve his time, which is OK for Carol Todd.
She said that on Dec. 17, Canadian prosecutors asked for a temporary detention order to ensure that when Coban steps off the plane, he has a place to go.
“And then he has to find a Canadian lawyer.”
Read more: Support Amanda Todd Legacy Society with WINGS
Amanda Todd, who lived in Port Coquitlam at the time of her death, used to attend school in Maple Ridge.
When she was in Grade 7, she was convinced by a stranger online to expose her breasts on her friend’s webcam.
That stranger used Amanda Todd’s image to blackmail her into providing him with more child pornography, threatening to send the nude photo to her friends and family unless she sent him more photos of herself.
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A Dutch court approved Coban’s extradition following his trial in Amsterdam.
He appealed that decision and denied involvement in any cyberbullying.
Todd attended Westview and Maple Ridge secondary in Maple Ridge.
She had a short-lived romantic relationship with a boy that ended when his girlfriend found out. The girlfriend and her friends bullied and taunted Todd, eventually beating her up.
Midway through the school year she moved transferred to Port Coquitlam’s Terry Fox secondary, but the photos again followed her.
She changed schools again, this time to the Coquitlam Alternate Basic Education program.
Todd attempted suicide, by drinking bleach. When her tormentors found out, they teased her and told her to try again.
Todd described how her life fell apart in a video she posted to YouTube a month before she took her own life.