Report finds Rehtaeh Parsons “did not receive support and assistance” required

HALIFAX – The independent review of the police and prosecution response to the Rehtaeh Parsons case concludes there were several issues in the way the system dealt with the child pornography case.

Murray Segal, a former lawyer, was hired in 2013 to conduct at independent review of the initial investigation, we well as the sexual assault and cyberbullying components of the case. Explicit images showing Rehtaeh Parsons being sexually assaulted at a party were circulated around her school in November of 2011. Parsons was 15 at the time of the assault, the two men involved were 18.

The findings of the review were released by Segal on Thursday afternoon.

“The most obvious points of concern were the length of the investigation and why child pornography charges were only laid after Rehtaeh’s death,” the report reads.

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Segal identified problems with Parsons’ initial reporting of her sexual assault, which Segal says “did not follow proper protocol.”

Parsons was forced to give two separate, detailed interviews, the first of which was in the presence of her mother and not in the presence of a social worker from the Department of Community Services.

The investigator then attempted to interview several students at the school, as well as get access to cell phones of students, but was “thwarted by school authorities.”

The investigator then sought advice from the Crown prosecutor, who came to the conclusion that because there were many discrepancies in the photo evidence, “there was no realistic prospect that sexual assault charges would result in conviction.”

Segal writes that the Crown’s advice related to the child pornography charges was wrong, resulting in the police investigator not following through with intended interviews and arrests.

Following Parsons’ death in 2013, the Internet Child Exploitation Unit  reviewed the case and determined that “child pornography charges could have been laid at the conclusion of the initial investigation,” a decision that came from the proper application of the law to the case at hand.

“In the end she did not receive the support and assistance a young person in crisis required.”

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The report contains a total of 17 recommendations.