Extradition: Online harassers face the law

One of our readers recently sent us a news clipping that could prove very interesting to those who’d like to see an end to the online harassment of RD and the families, clergy, teachers, and businesses of Hampstead.

Amanda Todd (27 November, 1996 – 10 October, 2012) was an adolescent girl from British Columbia, Canada who fell prey to an online predator. Three weeks prior to her death, Amanda published a YouTube video in which she used cue cards to tell the harrowing story of being stalked, groomed, seduced, and ultimately extorted and harassed by an adult male she’d met online.

In October 2012, unable to cope with the depression, anxiety, and pain of being bullied and harassed, Amanda committed suicide.

According to a Canadian television documentary, the RCMP were informed up to a year prior to Amanda’s death that a young teen was being sexually extorted by an adult male. The RCMP said that “there was nothing that could be done” about it.

In January 2014, Dutch police arrested a 35-year-old male in a case involving multiple victims in the Netherlands, UK, and Canada. “Aydin C.” was charged with indecent assault and creating and distributing child sexual abuse images. Shortly afterward, the RCMP announced that this person had been charged with extortion, internet luring, criminal harassment and the possession and distribution of child pornography for his alleged activities against Amanda Todd and other child victims, both male and female.

However, until a few days ago it was not at all clear that the suspect could be tried in Canada, as he is not a Canadian citizen, and the alleged crimes took place in another country.

A few days ago, though, a Dutch court approved the extradition of Aydin Coban, who will now face charges in Canada once his 2017 trial in the Netherlands is complete. In his home country, he faces 72 charges of sexual assault and extortion involving 39 other alleged victims, many of them underage.

In another case, a woman was extradited from Germany to Canada in 2015 to face charges of criminal harassment, threatening, and violating no-contact orders—some of which took place online. The complainants received “online threats, defamatory comments and anti-Semitic views” between October 2013 and October 2014, police said. Hana Sakkat was arrested by German police, then handed over to Canadian police to face charges in Alberta.

These extradition cases may have implications for cases like Hoaxtead which involve online criminal harassment originating from non-UK countries. In the past, it was assumed that non-UK nationals could only be prosecuted in their home countries, but the global nature of the internet transcends national borders.

If these cases are harbingers of the future, people like Abraham Christie and Ella Draper, Angela Power-Disney, Charlotte Alton Ward, Kane Slater, Alan Wrightson, and Kristie Sue Costa might look forward to extradition and criminal prosecution for their online harassment, defamation, threats, and incitement to violence against Hampstead residents…even though they think they’re safely operating outside the UK.

When that happens, we’ll be first in line to say, “We told you so”.