‘The justice system failed her’: Nova Scotia teenager
commits suicide after being raped, bullied: mother
commits suicide after being raped, bullied: mother
April 9, 2013
The mother of a 17-year-old Halifax girl who committed suicide says her daughter was raped by four boys about 18 months ago and viciously bullied after a photo of the alleged incident was passed around her school and community.
Rehtaeh Parsons tried to kill herself Thursday night and was taken off life support Sunday.
In an extensive post on a Facebook memorial page, her mother Leah Parsons described how the straight-A high school student became depressed and suicidal after the incident.
“The person Rehtaeh once was all changed one dreaded night in November 2011. She went with a friend to another’s home. In that home she was raped by four young boys . . . one of those boys took a photo of her being raped and decided it would be fun to distribute the photo to everyone in Rehtaeh’s school and community where it quickly went viral,” Leah Parsons wrote. “Because the boys already had a ‘slut’ story, the victim of the rape Rehtaeh was considered a slut.
“This day changed the lives of our family forever.”
Rehtaeh, who was a 15-year-old high school student in Cole Harbour at the time, was repeatedly bullied at school and “suddenly shunned by almost everyone she knew.”
“She was never left alone. She had to leave the community. Her friends turned against her. People harassed her. Boys she didn’t know started texting her and Facebooking her asking her to have sex with them. It just never stopped,” her mother told CBC.
Rehtaeh moved and transferred to a school in nearby Halifax but “struggled emotionally with depression and anger.”
She later was checked into a hospital amid worries she would harm herself.
Leah Parsons said that police never charged any of the boys over the alleged incident.
“One year later the police conclude their investigation to state that it comes down to ‘he said, she said’ they believed the boys raped her but the proof in a court of law was difficult to gather,” Parsons said in her post.
The RCMP confirmed that there is an investigation into a sudden death of a young person “in relation to the earlier complaint of sexual assault and inappropriate photographs.”
“An investigation was completed and in consultation with the Crown there was insufficient evidence to proceed with charges,” Cpl. Scott MacRae told the National Post. “Investigations can be complex in nature, police have to look at all the evidence . . . and see if it meets reasonable grounds, if the evidence can support the charge. When we consult with the Crown, they look at a different burden — the likelihood of conviction.”
The N.S. Public Prosecution Service told the National Post that the RCMP sought their advice last year about laying charges of sexual assault and distributing child pornography. Both Crown attorneys who reviewed the case concluded there was “no realistic prospect of conviction.”
MacRae said that everyone involved in the investigation was a minor at the time of the alleged incident.
Leah Parsons did not mince words about how she thought her daughter’s case was handled.
“The justice system failed her,” Parsons wrote.
MacRae said he understands the family’s reaction and “our empathy goes out to the family because to lose the life of a young person is a tragedy.”
The story has resulted in a flood of reaction online. Parsons’ Facebook post had been shared about 1,000 times as of early Tuesday afternoon.
“[Rehtaeh] wouldn’t want people who bullied her, talked about her, put negative statuses about her over the past year, and sent awful messages to be on this page,” Leah Parsons wrote in the Facebook post.
The case recalls two other recent tragic stories. B.C. teen Amanda Todd committed suicide after she was brutally bullied when explicit photos of her were distributed online.
In the U.S., two Steubenville, Ohio teenage football players were convicted of the rape of a 16-year-old girl, which was recorded on a cellphone and shared among the community. The victim in that case was also bullied by former friends at school and as the case came to international prominence, received death threats.
Source
1. Rehtaeh Parsons in an undated photo.
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