Hard drive inaccessible in webcam blackmail case tied to Amanda Todd death
The Dutch authorities are still struggling to break into an encrypted hard drive belonging to suspected webcam pedophile Aydin C. The Tilburg man is on trial for blackmailing dozens of underage girls after he convinced them to strip in front of their webcams, NOS reports.
The Public Prosecutor believes that much evidence can be found on the hard drive, if only they could break into it. The authorities have been trying to do so for three years. C. denies that the hard drive belongs to him, he says it's a friend's.
The trial against C. started in the court of Amsterdam on Wednesday. All in all he is charged with 72 different offenses, including making, having and distributing child pornography. He is also suspected of defrauding and extorting five men from Australia and Britain. The Prosecutor's file against him consists of over 25 thousand pages, according to the prosecutor.
C.'s most well known suspected victim is Canadian teen Amanda Todd. The 15-year-old girl committed suicide in 2012 after being digitally tormented and harassed by a stranger. The perpetrator had a naked photo of the girl, which eh used to blackmail her. Despite several moves to new schools, the tormenter always managed to find Todd and spread the photo among her new classmates. Amanda Todd told her story in a YouTube video before she committed suicide.
Todd's case is not part of the currently ongoing lawsuit against C. That case will be handled in Canada at a later date.