Aydin Coban was sentenced to 13 years in prison in B.C., a punishment longer than Dutch laws

A judge in the Netherlands has ruled that the Dutch man convicted for sexually extorting B.C. teen Amanda Todd should serve six years in prison.

Aydin Coban wasn’t present in Amsterdam District Court for a brief hearing to announce the sentence. His lawyer, Robert Malewicz, said he would appeal the decision to the Dutch Supreme Court.

Coban was convicted last year in B.C. of extortion, two counts of possession of child pornography, child luring and criminal harassment against Todd.

He was given a 13-year sentence in B.C. Supreme Court, but conversion hearings were held in the Netherlands this year to bring the punishment in line with Dutch law.

Dutch prosecutors in the summer had recommended a sentence of just over four years in prison. Malewicz, who had called the B.C. sentence “exorbitantly high, even by Canadian standards,” had said then he believed Coban should not get any extra prison time, or, failing that, a monthslong sentence.

Defendant still serving separate sentence

Todd, of Port Coquitlam, died by suicide on Oct. 10, 2012, at age 15. The previous month, she had uploaded a nine-minute video — since viewed millions of times — detailing the abuse she experienced and how it had affected her life in a series of flash cards.

Carol Todd, who has advocated for the prevention of cyberbullying in the wake of her daughter’s death, told CBC’s Early Edition in June that she wanted to see Coban serve his full sentence, but had reconciled herself to the fact that it would be shortened in accordance with Dutch statutes.

“I’m feeling quite comfortable with the six-year sentence today because there was a chance the sentencing, conversion sentencing, could have been zero,” she told CBC News on Thursday.

“So six years is a lot, it’s a maximum sentence and I know the Dutch courts are very different from our Canadian judicial system.”

Court in B.C. heard that Coban, who was in his 30s at the time, threatened to send images and videos of Todd in compromising positions to her friends and family. He had created nearly two dozen aliases to pursue his cyberbullying campaign.

Justice Martha Devlin said in handing down the sentence that “ruining Amanda’s life was Mr. Coban’s expressly stated goal. Sadly, one that he achieved.”

Coban is serving an 11-year sentence in the Netherlands after being convicted on similar charges involving the online extortion of 33 young girls and gay men. The sentence imposed Thursday will be served after he completes his current prison time next year.

‘Amanda would be … pleased’

André Klip, a professor of criminal law, criminal procedure and the transnational aspects of criminal law at Maastricht University, said he wasn’t surprised by Thursday’s outcome and that Coban would likely spend more time in prison in the Netherlands than if he served his time in Canada.

“Dutch law is very predictable in terms of when a person can be released after being sentenced,” he said. “It’s very likely that … he would have been out far more early [in Canada].”

Klip said there is a good working relationship between the officials in Canada’s and the Netherland’s two judicial systems and the Coban case sends a message to anyone thinking about committing transnational crimes.

“If you take the risk of causing casualties elsewhere in the globe, there is also a chance you will be sent to that country and it may impose harsher punishments then you would receive back home.”

Todd said although she will never feel there has been appropriate justice over her daughter’s death, there are things she’s content the case has improved.

“If you want to look at it in a positive note, this sentencing has set legal precedents in Netherlands and in Canada for a high bar, for other predators and offenders who get taken to court,” she said.

“And I know that that’s part that Amanda would be happy, pleased about. That her story has created this difference in how we look at child sexual abuse trials and exploitation trials. It’s raised the bar around awareness.”