It’s been nearly two years since Bridgewater Junior/Senior High was thrust into the spotlight, after it was discovered the intimate images of up to 20 young girls were being shared among students at the school.
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After a 13 month investigation, police laid charges against six teenage boys. On Wednesday, the teens entered guilty pleas at Bridgewater Provincial Court, bringing some closure to a troubling case.
“They were quite young children and clearly did not have any understanding or insight into the risks and actual harm that this type of conduct causes,” said Crown attorney Peter Dostal.
“It can have incredibly evil consequences when such intimate images of young persons are distributed among the school or even decimated beyond the school boundaries.”
Charges fall under a new section of law
The distribution of intimate images is covered under a new section of the criminal code that was introduced following the death of 17-year-old Rehtaeh Parsons.
Parsons died after being taken off life support following a suicide attempt in April 2013. Rehtaeh’s family said she was relentlessly harassed both online and at school after a photo was circulated that showed the teen being allegedly sexually assaulted.
“I just think it’s ironic that the first case that’s tried is here in Nova Scotia,” said Leah Parsons, Rehtaeh Parsons mother.
“Of all the provinces, this is where this happened to Rehtaeh.”
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Heightened awareness in Nova Scotia
Parsons believes there is a heightened awareness in Nova Scotia around sharing intimate images following what happened to her daughter.
She travels the country to do public speaking engagements, and says there are some parts of the country that are familiar with the new law and some that aren’t.
If the legislation surrounding the distribution of intimate images without consent had been in place previously, she believes the impact on Rehtaeh’s mental health may have been different.
“The fact that that photo was continually shared every time she went to a new school and she tried so hard to get back up again – that photo would show up so she would again slide backwards because nobody let her get past it,” Parsons said.
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Sentencing set for July
The identities of the teens involved in the Bridgewater case are protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. In addition to distributing intimate images, the six teens were also charged with the possession and distribution of child pornography. With the guilty pleas, the Crown says they won’t pursue the other charges when they are sentenced on July 31.
“The remaining charges are likely to be dismissed at the time of sentencing,”Dostal said.
Parsons doesn’t think the teens should get away with “just a slap on the wrist,” but is hopeful to hear the young men will be attending educational programming ahead of their sentencing hearing this summer.
“Hopefully there’ll be some probation put in place for them, something that sends a message to others that this is what happens if you share intimate images with others,” Parsons said.
Because this is a new area of law, Dalhousie law professor Wayne MacKay says it would have been interesting to see the case against the six teens go to trial and how the charge of distribution of intimate images interacts with other charges, like child pornography.
“The sentencing stage of the case set for July will still be an important opportunity to send a message about how hurtful the distribution of intimate images can be for the victims and that this is a serious criminal matter and not just boys being boys,” said MacKay.
“The scale of the invasions of these girls privacy is also significant and that too justifies a stern message from the court. ”
Jail time unlikely
Because all six of the young men involved in the case fall under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, MacKay says it is unlikely that any of them will get any jail time by pleading guilty to distributing intimate images, although he says the maximum sentence can be as much as five years.
“There could be a fairly long period of probation with some tough conditions attached such as limitations on the access of the boys to the internet,” said MacKay.
“Those kind of restrictions could serve as a real deterrent in these kind of cases.”
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Report into Rehtaeh Parsons case released this week
The guilty pleas in the Bridgewater intimate images case came the same week that the Nova Scotia government released an update into the Segal report.
The report was an independent review into the way both police and the prosecution service handled the Rehtaeh Parsons’ case. The justice department says 14 of the 17 recommendations made in the October 2015 report by Murray Segal have been implemented. The remaining three recommendations remain underway.
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One of the recommendations included having the Halifax Regional Police adopted a sexual assault trauma policy and to have officers trained specifically how to respond to cases of sexual assault.
Parsons is pleased that the province has adopted all 17 recommendations and how fast they are being implemented.
“All these things take time. It takes time to roll them out and [have] training, so really when you look at the amount of time that it’s taken, they’ve moved on it pretty quickly,” she said.
One thing that Parsons feels needs more attention is the issue of educating people on consent.
“We still need to peel back the layers of what is consent and start teaching consent to children at a very young age. The culture around rape culture and consent, that’s still there.”
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