Two 18-year-old Canadian men were arrested Thursday morning and face charges of making and distributing child pornography following the death of 17-year-old Rehtaeh Parsons who died after being removed from life support.
The young girl was photographed as she was allegedly gang-raped in 2011. When that photo was circulated online and by phone, the humiliation of the incident caused Parsons to have suicidal thoughts and she hung herself in an attempted suicide attempt in April. She was taken off of life support three days after her suicide attempt.
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The names of the two men have not been released and were minors at the time of the incident. The two were not charged at the time of the alleged gang-rape and assault. A previous year-long investigation after the incident did not uncover enough evidence to file charges then. A subsequent investigation was unable to collect enough evidence for the sexual assault charges in the most recent invcestigation, but did bring up enough evidence for the child pornography charges according to Canadian authorities.
Leah Parsons, the mother of the young girl said in a statement, “I felt a little bit of relief, just to say, finally — like I hope — they keep saying they want to tell their side of the story, but they have never given a statement. The police have never spoken to them in all this time. So at least, here is your chance. Tell your side of the story,” she said.
It was only one day after Cyberbullying legislation went into effect that charges were brought against the two men. Canadian officials say that the timing of the arrests were pure coincidence.