Dutch man's case may be linked to Amanda Todd

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Dutch prosecutors have filed indecent assault and child pornography charges against a 35-year-old man suspected of blackmailing underage girls to perform sexual acts in front of a webcam.

Dutch broadcaster Omroep Brabant has suggested the unidentified suspect's case may be related to that of 15-year-old Canadian girl Amanda Todd. Todd committed suicide in 2012 after being victimized in a similar manner, and bullied.

Lawyer Christian van Dijk confirmed to The Associated Press on Thursday one of the charges against his client involves a 15-year-old girl from British Columbia. But prosecutors have only said the man is suspected of blackmailing girls in the U.S., Britain and the Netherlands.

"I do know the name" of the alleged Canadian victim, Van Dijk said. But "it's not for me to bring it out publicly, and not now."

The suspect, who has dual Dutch and Turkish nationality, has been in detention since he was arrested in January in a vacation house the town of Oisterwijk. He lived alone, and has no wife or children.

Prosecutors first publicized his case after a preliminary hearing Wednesday at which his detention was extended for three months.

"The suspicions against the man are that he approached underage girls via the Internet and then seduced them into performing sexual acts in front of a webcam," prosecutors said in a statement.

"He is suspected of subsequently pressurizing them to participate in making new material."

They noted the suspect is also thought to have blackmailed adult men in a somewhat similar way, by convincing them that he was an underage boy, convincing them to perform sexual acts on camera, and then threatening to turn the images over to the police.

Lawyer Van Dijk said he doesn't believe prosecutors have sufficient evidence to convict his client, and said that even if there is evidence of unlawful activity on his computer, it may have been hacked.

"Prosecutors seem to think they have a big fish here, but if I see the evidence, it's not much," he said. "Lots of references to IP addresses and such."

Dutch prosecutors said they were cooperating with other national authorities, including the British.

Van Dijk said U.S. and Norwegian authorities are also involved in the case.

He said no country has sought to have his client extradited, and so far he hasn't entered any plea.

"He's exercising his right to remain silent."

Todd brought the problem of bullying to mainstream attention in Canada after she posted a video on YouTube in which she told her story with handwritten signs, describing how she was lured by a stranger to expose her breasts on a webcam.

The picture ended up on a Facebook page made by the stranger, to which her friends were added.

She was repeatedly bullied, despite changing schools, before finally killing herself weeks after posting the video. It has now been viewed more than 17 million times.