Rehtaeh Parsons Arrests: Two Boys, 18, Charged With Child Pornography
Two 18-year-old men were booked on pornography charges Thursday following the suicide of a 17-year-old girl who suffered from months of online bullying.
Rehtaeh Parsons was gang raped at a party in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2011. At least four men were involved in the incident, one of whom took a picture of Parson. That picture was eventually circulated around Paron's entire school, prompting classmates to call her a "slut."
Overwhelmed with bullying, Parson told her parents about the incident a week after it had occurred. Police responded by stating there was not enough evidence to investigate. While the family attempted to move, Parson was left with an extreme amount of "depression and anger," her mother said according to the Daily News.
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In March her parents attempted to check her into a hospital because she was suffering with suicidal thoughts. In April, days after her release, Parsons attempted to hang herself in the family bathroom. She was discovered by her mother, who attempted to save her but could not. Parsons was taken off life support three days later.
Parson's parents said that they had given up on finding justice for their daughter. They were shocked by a police visit shortly after the arrest of the two teen boys.
"After everything we've been through, you're almost in a place where you're not expecting anything at all, and then all of a sudden it's here," said the girl's father, Glen Canning.
"To hear those words, 'We've made two arrests,' I felt like crying," he said. "At the same time you feel sad, because my daughter is never going to know that sense of justice. She'll never know that."
The arrests came just one day after Nova Scota passed new bullying laws giving bullied teens the right to sue the parents of the bully, if the teen is still underage.
"We hope that the new cyberbullying legislation and the charges laid today will send a strong message that this behavior will not be tolerated," Halifax police Chief Jean-Michel Blais told reporters.
Because both boys were minors at the time of the incident, their names have not been released.
