“I don’t have my same little girl anymore,” said the mother Monday. “She just doesn’t care any more. She thinks that nobody cares.”
Halifax Regional Police arrested a 14-year-old boy from the Preston area last week and charged him with making and distributing child pornography.
In a case that drew instant comparisons with the Rehtaeh Parsons story, police say the charges involve the video of a sexual act made during a party and then distributed via social media.
The people involved are not being named because the accused is a youth and Metro does not identify alleged victims of sexual assaults.
The Dartmouth woman said she picked her daughter up in late March from what was supposed to be a birthday party, and found her so drunk she couldn’t stand without help.
Speaking through tears at a Tim Horton’s, she told Metro the party was actually an “all you can drink” event during which her daughter was dragged outside by a group of boys and filmed giving one of them oral sex.
“She’s saying there was no consent given,” said the woman. “She could barely walk, let alone say yes to anything.”
A Halifax Regional Police spokesperson said the act was “determined” to be consensual after interviews with all parties involved.
“From what we gleaned, nobody was forced into doing something that they didn’t want to do,” said Const. Pierre Bourdages.
Bourdages said he had “no information” about whether the parties involved had been drinking, though there was alcohol present at the party.
The mother said what’s unfolded since is exactly what eventually led to Rehtaeh’s suicide in April – the video spread throughout HRM, and then the taunting started.
“She’s being bullied, being called names by the girls and boys offering bus tickets for blow jobs,” said the mother, shaking and sometimes unable to speak. “All the kids call her ‘Facebook Famous.’”
She said her daughter, formerly an A and B student and youth leader at the local community centre has stopped going to school, is staying out late and shoplifting.
The teen has just started counselling, and her mom says she’s hoping it gives her the strength to rise above – and survive – the name-calling.
“I don’t want to come home from work and find her hurt or anything,” said the mother of five. “She should be able to just go to school and get her education and live her life like normal.”
The allegations have not been proven in court, but the woman said she’s hoping telling her daughter’s side of the story might help stop the bullying – and stop the same thing happening to yet another young woman.
“There were so many kids there that night, why didn’t one of them get her help or stop it?” she said. “I just don’t know what’s wrong with the teenagers.”
