Cash, hard drive, passport hidden in home of Amanda Todd extortion suspect: officer

A Dutch police officer has described finding cash, a passport and a hard drive hidden inside a stereo in the home of the man accused of extorting British Columbia teenager Amanda Todd.

Erik Verstraten told the B.C. Supreme Court trial for Aydin Coban that he found 10,000 euros in cash and a passport belonging to the man during the search of the home near the Dutch city of Tilburg, in January 2014.

Coban has pleaded not guilty to charges of extortion, harassment, communication with a young person to commit a sexual offence and possessing child pornography.

Verstraten told the jury trial he found the items after opening a box for a stereo system and noticed the speakers were still wrapped in plastic, while the stereo itself was not, which he thought was strange.

He says he took the stereo apart and found the items in a box wrapped with tape.

At the start of the trial last week, Crown prosecutor Louise Kenworthy told the court that Todd had been the victim of a persistent campaign of online ``sextortion'' from November 2009 to February 2012, before her death at age 15 in October that year.