Canadian police reopen teen death case

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Canadian police reopen teen death case

AAP April 13, 2013, 2:37 pm

Canadian police say they have received new information in the case of a teen who killed herself.

Canadian authorities are reopening the case of a teen who killed herself after she was allegedly raped and bullied for months.

Police say they have received new and credible information in the case of 17-year-old Rehtaeh Parsons, whose family said she was photographed while being sexually assaulted in 2011 and bullied after the photo went viral online.

Her death on Sunday has been compared to similar cases in the United States, including a 15-year-old California girl who hanged herself after her family says she was sexually assaulted by friends and a photo surfaced online.

Police had concluded there were no grounds to charge anyone in the Canadian case after an initial yearlong investigation.

But the Royal Canadian Mountain Police (RCMP) in Halifax now say a person who provided new information is willing to verify who the suspects are and cooperate with investigators, who have come under public criticism for their handling of the case.

RCMP Corporal Scott MacRae said he could not provide any details about who the source was or what the new information was. He said it was too early to speculate if there would be charges.

"We're certainly encouraged by this," he said.

MacRae said Parson's family had been informed, and they welcomed the re-opening of the file.

The Nova Scotia government came under criticism after Justice Minister Ross Landry initially ruled out the possibility of reviewing how the RCMP - Canada's national police force - handled allegations that Parsons was sexually assaulted.

Landry changed course this week, saying he had asked senior officials for options to review how the RCMP and the Public Prosecution Service concluded they could not file charges.

A funeral service for Parsons is scheduled for Saturday.

AP srp

 

[Nu Wa]

Rehtaeh Parsons: Canadian police re-open case into rape of suicide teen

Police in Canada have re-opened an investigation into the alleged gang-rape of a teenage girl who later committed suicide after being bullied over the attack.

A Facebook page has been dedicated to the memory of Rehtaeh

By Paul Wright and agencies
10:02PM BST 12 Apr 2013

The Royal Canadian Mountain police said they have received new, credible information in the case of 17-year-old Rehtaeh Parsons, whose family said she was photographed while being sexually assaulted in 2011 and then bullied after the photo was shared on the web and went viral.

Police had originally concluded there were no grounds to charge anyone after an initial year-long investigation.

However after Rehtaeh's death last week caused an international outcry, forcing Nova Scotia's justice minister to intervene, police have now re-opened the investigation.

Both Rehtaeh's parents have severely criticised the police's handling of the case.

In a heartfelt piece recently published on his personal website, father Glen Canning said his daughter "wasn't bullied to death, she was disappointed to death".

He added: "[She was] disappointed in people she thought she could trust, her school, and the police."

He went on to lambast the police, who had said they were unable to arrest or charge anyone suspected of being involved due to "insufficient evidence".

"[The attackers] took photos of it," he countered. "They posted it on their Facebook walls. They emailed it to God knows who. They shared it with the world as if it was a funny animation.

"How is it possible for someone to leave a digital trail like that yet the RCMP don't have evidence of a crime? What were they looking for if photos and bragging weren't enough?"

Rehtaeh was forced to move schools and communities after being bullied by other students. She was branded a "slut" and received regular text messages from boys asking for sex.

Her father said it was "months" before police talked to the accused. After a year long investigation into the attack, the RCMP eventually claimed they were unable to bring any convictions.

On Thursday, 'hacktivist' group Anonymous released a YouTube video claiming to have discovered the names of at least two of the four teenagers suspected of raping Rehtaeh.

They threatened to make public the information unless the police took "immediate legal action" against the individuals. The hackers' threats were swiftly condemned by both the police and justice minister.

In his only public statement since her daughter was taken off life support on Sunday evening, Rehtaeh's father ended by saying he "felt dead inside".

"The worst nightmare of my life has just begun," he said. "I loved my beautiful baby with all my heart.

"I felt her heart beating in my soul from the moment she was born until the moment she died. We were a team. We were best pals.

"The life I had with my daughter was a rare thing. It was wonderful, it consumed me. I was defined by it. It made my life rich and beautiful. She was amazing.

"Yesterday I looked at [a] wooden box. It will hold her ashes. I hate it."

The parents revealed her daughter had saved the life of four people after donating her organs, saying it was "her final gift of life".

 

[Nu Wa]

Internet Activists Seek Justice For Alleged Teen Gang-Rape Victim Rehtaeh Parsons

By Andrea Peterson on Apr 11, 2013 at 9:20 am

Internet activists are demanding action on the tragic case of alleged teen gang-rape victim Rehtaeh Parsons, with hactivist collective Anonymous organizing around the hashtag #OpJustice4Rehtaeh. The news of Parsons’ suicide following a battle with depression her mother alleges stemmed from a gang-rape by four boys, seventeen months of victim-blaming bullying, pictures of the assault being shared widely in her community, and legal inaction broke earlier this week.

The original investigation into the alleged assault was dropped after authorities decided there was not enough evidence to convict, although Rehtaeh’s mother believes many aspects of the investigation were mishandled. Tuesday, in a stark reversal of his earlier decision to stand by the investigators’ decision to close the case, the Nova Scotia Justice Minister Ross Landy announced he was asking for a review of the handling of the case. But no further action has been taken.

Here’s what you need to know:

Anonymous was encouraged to get involved. A prominent Canadian Liberal strategist, Warren Kinsella, posted an open letter asking the group for help putting pressure on those who stood by while Parsons’ tragedy unfolded.

One group of Anons claim to have identified the assailants. Yesterday, a press release posted to Pastebin claimed to know two of the four alleged assailants, with a third being confirmed. By this morning a newer release claimed the group is “confident” they know the identities of the people involved in Rehtaeh’s rape, but are still looking for those who turned a blind eye in the investigation or assisted in sharing the photo evidence of her assault.

Anonymous doesn’t want vigilante justice. Instead, it’s calling for a thorough investigation into the original allegations and into the behavior of the investigators who led the initial inquiry. Prominent Twitter accounts self-identifying with Anonymous have requested the identities of the assailants not be exposed out of respect for Parsons’ mother’s wishes.

Anonymous claims it took “only a few hours to identify the boys that assaulted Rehtaeh.” In the Pastebin post this morning they claim it was not a high tech investigation and that within hours they had emails from dozens of personal acquaintances that “recalled confessions made by these boys blatantly in public where they detailed the rape of an inebriated 15-year-old girl.”

They believe school administrators enabled the rape culture that allowed Parsons’ alleged assault to go unpunished. When asking why the boys were so blatant in their public discussion of the incident, Anonymous has an answer: “They believed no one was ever going to do anything to stop them and they were right. For this we point our fingers at the Cole Harbour school system.”

This isn’t the first time Anonymous has gotten involve to combat rape culture. The collective also engaged in activism around the Steubenville rape, which bore many striking similarities to the Parsons tragedy.

Anonymous is helping other campaigns asking for justice in the case. A Change.org petition asking forhas skyrocked from 13,000 signatures as of ThinkProgress coverage yesterday to over 75,000 as of this morning, and with much of that growth coming after Anonymous accounts started sharing the link.

There will be an offline protest. Various Anonymous members are publicizing a protest being arranged outside the Halifax RCMP station for Sunday, April 14th.

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