RCMP say a man arrested in the Netherlands in connection with the online bullying of Amanda Todd may have dozens of other victims, including more Canadian children, according to a CBC report.
A 35-year-old man was arrested in the Netherlands in January following an investigation into alleged offences there involving Dutch victims.
He now faces charges of extortion, Internet luring, criminal harassment, possession of child pornography for the purpose of distribution and possession of child pornography.
The National Child Exploitation Co-ordination Centre (NCECC) said suspected victims are from Canada, as well as the U.S., the United Kingdom., the Netherlands and other countries, according to the CBC.
Many of those in Canada are children, International investigation Insp. Bob Resch told the CBC, and local police forces in the appropriate areas have been notified and in touch with the victims.
Todd, a 15-year-old girl from Port Coquitlam, B.C., posted a heart-wrenching video on YouTube weeks before her suicide in October 2012, detailing the online abuse she suffered.
Todd’s story, and others like it, prompted the Canadian government to propose legislation that would make it a criminal offence to distribute intimate images without the consent of the person shown.
Mathijs Pennings, a reporter who worked on the story for broadcaster Omroep Brabant, told The Canadian Press prosecutors and police believe there are as many as 40 victims.
“The prosecutors and police think he made footage of the web cam and blackmailed her with the pictures, and he did that with other kids, too, around the world,” Pennings told The Canadian Press.
They also believe he may have blackmailed adult men by convincing them