R. v. Coban

R. v. Coban2021 BCSC 1855In the Supreme Courtroom of British ColumbiaDocket X078463Before Justice DevlinDecided on September 23, 2021

Relevancy of the Case: Is presenting proof from the accused’s different circumstances prejudicial in a trial for blackmailing and extortion of a minor lady?

Related Details of the Case

Coban, the accused, extorted an underage lady over the Web from January 2009 to October 2012.
He used a number of aliases over totally different platforms reminiscent of Skype, Fb, YouTube, and electronic mail to speak with the underage lady after which together with her household, mates, and lecturers.
In 2014, the police seized 12 units from his residence. The courtroom scheduled a jury trial in January 2022. The Crown has filed the current software for the admissibility of proof associated to the accused.

Distinguished Arguments by the Counsels

The Crown’s counsel seeks to current 10 our bodies of proof, most prominently proof of extortion of different individuals, to determine the accused in these schemes.
The accused’s counsel opposed the next items of proof:

The video stills displaying unsavoury .txt recordsdata
The deleted messages
The fraudulent possession of monetary devices and IT paperwork
Messages in different sextortion circumstances

The accused’s counsel argued that each one these items of proof are prejudicial to the jury, and their probative worth was a lot decrease than their prejudicial impact.

Opinion of the Bench

A lot of the proof associated to the extortion of different individuals was extremely prejudicial. This might have an effect on the jury trial, however a lot of that proof is also used to determine and join the accused to the actual case.
The aliases current in these different sextortion circumstances had additionally messaged or emailed the sufferer within the current case.
Therefore, the Crown can current the proof in a restricted capability whereas instructing the jury.

Last Determination

The Courtroom permitted the Crown to current proof in a restricted capability.

Arnav Kaman, an undergraduate scholar at Rajiv Gandhi Nationwide College of Legislation, Punjab, and Ritesh Karale, an undergraduate scholar at Maharashtra Nationwide Legislation College, Mumbai, ready this case abstract throughout their internship with The Cyber Weblog India in January/February 2024.