VANCOUVER -- A 35-year-old man is in a Dutch jail accused of using webcam footage to blackmail dozens of victims around the world, including British Columbia teen Amanda Todd, who turned to suicide after she was exploited online, a broadcaster in the Netherlands reports.

A news release from the country's prosecution service says the man was arrested in January and is suspected of encouraging underage girls in several countries, including the U.S., the U.K. and the Netherlands, to perform sexual acts in front of a web camera.

While the news release doesn't include any names, Omroep Brabant, a news outlet based in the southern region of the country, reports one of the alleged victims was Todd, a 15-year-old girl from Port Coquitlam, B.C., who died in October 2012.

The arrest could mark the first significant break in a case that made international headlines and fuelled a debate about bullying and online sexual exploitation after a video surfaced that featured Todd holding up handwritten signs detailing what happened to her.

The RCMP and representatives from Todd's family were expected to address a news conference in the Vancouver area Thursday afternoon.

Mathijs Pennings, a reporter who worked on the story for Omroep Brabant, said the man's lawyer confirmed the list of alleged victims includes a 15-year-old girl from B.C., and he said a source told Omroep Brabant the girl was Todd.

"The prosecutors and police think he made footage of the webcam and blackmailed her with the pictures, and he did that with other kids, too, around the world," Pennings told The Canadian Press in an interview from Tilburg, located just west of Oisterwijk, where the man was arrested.

"I got it from a very reliable source and we know that the Dutch police connect him to Amanda Todd."

Pennings said prosecutors and police believe there could be as many as 40 victims.

Before Todd's suicide, she uploaded an emotional video to YouTube in which she said she was lured by an unidentified male to expose her breasts during an online chat. The video said she received a message a year later from a man on Facebook threatening that if she didn't give him a show, he would send the webcam picture to her friends and family.

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.

Amanda's mother, Carol Todd, who has been outspoken about bullying since her daughter's death, said she hadn't been yet informed of the allegations.

"I guess it's a shock to the system, it's sort of surprising," she told radio station CKNW.

"I hope that something concrete comes out of this. But I in no way feel this is just one person responsible for what happened to my daughter. I believe there are many, many out there around the world that would be responsible."

Pennings said the man was arrested at a vacation home in Oisterwijk, located about 100 kilometres south of Amsterdam.

The suspect is being held on charges of indecent assault, the production and dissemination of child pornography, fraud, computer intrusion and the possession of hard drugs, the prosecution news release said.

The release also said the man is suspected of recording his victims and then pressuring them to make new material. The man is also suspected of posing as an underage boy and encouraging adult men to perform sexual acts on webcam, and then blackmailing them by threatening to give the images to the police, the news release said.

The man exercised his right to remain silent, said Pennings.

The man's lawyer, Christian van Dijk, said he doesn't believe prosecutors have sufficient evidence to convict his client. He said even if there is evidence of unlawful activity on the man's 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."

Pennings said the man, who is not married and does not have any children, was born in the Netherlands but also has a Turkish passport.

Authorities in the Netherlands were tipped off by an American Internet provider and seized computers when the man was arrested, said Pennings.

Pennings said Dutch people are familiar with Todd's story.

"It was all around the news here too, so her video was watched by many Dutch people," he said.

"People know the story of Amanda Todd."

-- With files from The Associated Press