Dutch court delays sentencing ruling for suspect accused in Amanda Todd suicide

The Amsterdam district court was unable to issue its ruling on Thursday regarding Aydin C., the 45-year-old man convicted of blackmailing Canadian teenager Amanda Todd with nude photos of her. The 15-year-old killed herself in 2012. A Canadian court sentenced the Dutch suspect to 13 years in prison.

C. is to serve this sentence in the Netherlands. The Amsterdam court was supposed to rule on how the sentence translates to Dutch standards, and whether it should be modified to fit Dutch guidelines. However, the court has submitted more legal questions to a court in Canada. The Amsterdam court will only issue a decision after these questions have been answered.

Todd’s suicide made headlines globally because of her YouTube video in which she expressed her despair over the extortion. C. was accused of threatening to distribute nude photos of the girl, and trapped her in this way, then continued to exploit her sexually.

Aydin C. was sentenced in 2018 in a separate Dutch criminal case to almost eleven years in prison for digitally stalking 33 underage girls and defrauding four homosexual men. In December 2020, he was extradited to Canada to stand trial for the extortion of Amanda Todd. After his trial there concluded, C. was returned to the Netherlands last November.

In the Dutch case, his sentence could be considered fully completed in September 2024. The Canadian court wants C. to serve the sentence imposed in the Todd case. The Dutch Public Prosecution Service has asked the court in Amsterdam to commute the Canadian sentence to 4.5 years in prison.

According to C.’s lawyer, the Dutch and Canadian cases have been wrongly separated. He has pleaded with the court to commute the Canadian sentence completely, reducing the sentence to zero days. Once the Canadians have answered the court’s questions, the Amsterdam court will proceed with the case.

No date was given for an expected ruling.