Appearing via a video link from the Netherlands, Wybren Vandermeer said he found unique identifiers that connect digital devices using a wireless Internet router, which were tested in the Aydin Coban investigation. Koban has pleaded not guilty to five counts – including child molestation, possession of child pornography and extortion. Prosecutors allege he was the man behind 22 fake social media identities used to scare Amanda Todd into giving sexual images of herself to keep an cyber bully away. The teenager committed suicide in October 2012. A video she made describing her agony went viral after her death, highlighting the issue of cyberbullying.
Research called “Revelation”
Vandermeer is an inspector of the Dutch national police, but said he prefers to be addressed as “master”. He told the judge and jurors that he was involved in an investigation called “Apocalypse”, which led him to a house in a rural holiday park about 120 kilometers south of Amsterdam in January 2014. Wearing a red plaid shirt, brown hair tied back in a thick ponytail, Vandermeer provided detailed technical evidence of the process by which he was able to determine that two digital devices – both called Admins-PCs – were connected to the router. The direct connection between the device and Coban was not explained, but prosecutors said in their opening statement on Monday that the 43-year-old was arrested in a three-story “holiday bungalow” in 2014, where evidence indicates that he had access to the Internet via a router at a nearby residence. Vandermeer was the first in a series of witnesses expected to be from the Netherlands – the country where Coban lived before being extradited to Canada in 2020 for trial. According to the Crown, Canadian police were unable to identify a suspect when they investigated Amanda Todd’s allegations in 2010 and 2011. But the efforts of the Dutch police gave new life to the case in 2013 and 2014. They first searched Koban’s home when he was not there and then returned to arrest him, confiscating a desktop computer, a laptop and hard drives. Crown Prosecutor Louise Kenworthy said the images from these devices were examined by an RCMP medical examiner, who found evidence of a number of accounts used to harass Todd despite deleting large amounts of material. Kenworthy said there were indications that the Dutch devices once contained videos containing the “Amanda” and “Amanda Todd” filenames. “The content of these videos was no longer visible,” Kenworthy told the jury on Monday. “The Crown’s theory is that Mr. Koban uploaded one or more of these videos and then sent hyperlinks to Ms. Todd, her friends and family.”
“Exactly what is blackmail and exploitation”
Vandermeer’s evidence was found between two days of testimony by a Vancouver police digital forensics expert. Hypocrite Sgt. Robin Shook worked in the counterintelligence unit before joining the digital forensics unit. He gave the jury detailed explanations of the web applications ranging from Gmail to YouTube, and the concept of web slang and emoji commonly used. He also explained the origins of video and chat services, such as Skype and Facebook, as well as services such as Dialogoo, which allows users to add a chat feature to a site, and motherless.com, a site that he says publishes mainly pornographic material. While some of the evidence was extremely technical and dry, the testimony speaks to the Crown’s challenge in linking defendants to social media accounts that can bounce through the Internet to avoid identification. Aydin Koban sat in the prisoner’s chair as he watched Amanda Todd’s mother, Carol Todd, testify on the first day of his trial in New Westminster. (Jane Wolsak) Under cross-examination, one of Koban’s lawyers showed a photograph of the small house where Vandermeer’s router was found and suggested that it was in a different holiday park from where his client had been arrested. Vandermeer said he did not know. The lawyer pointed out the size of the trees in the picture and the presence of brick walls, which he suggested would block the internet connection outside the house. If Coban lived in a different holiday park, his lawyer asked if the increased distance would make it unlikely that his devices would be connected to the router – either via wifi or hard cable. Vandermeer said both of these factors could be variable. Koban is not blamed for Todd’s death. He watched the procession from the prisoner’s box, where he sat in a dark shirt, separated by glass and a few meters from the bench in the back of the courtroom, where he was watched by Amanda Todd’s mother, Carol Todd. Carol Todd, Amanda Todd’s mother, speaks to reporters outside the BC Supreme Court in New Westminster, BC, on Monday. (Jason Proctor / CBC) Outside the courtroom, Todd said she was glad the details of her daughter’s ordeal were emerging. “It has come to light exactly what the campaign and the exploitation are,” he told CBC. “Now we’re sharing and giving examples of what happened to Amanda and what can happen to others through online exploitation. And I can only hope that this is a learning experience and provides more awareness about coffee coolers and dining tables. . “
