A judge sentenced six male teenagers to conditional discharges Wednesday in provincial court in Bridgewater, N.S., for sharing intimate images of 19 girls without their consent.

Judge Paul Scovil said he was encouraged that the teens, who are from the Bridgewater area and ranged in age from 13 to 16 at the time of the offences, have expressed remorse and accepted responsibility for what they did. The boys are now 15 to 19 years old.

But he also quoted the mother of one of the victims, who said the experience has been "complete hell."

The teens arrive at provincial court in Bridgewater, N.S., for sentencing on Wednesday. (Elizabeth Chiu/CBC)

A conditional discharge means if the teens follow court-imposed conditions for nine months, their convictions will be erased after three years.

The teens must do 50 hours of community service, attend counselling and meet with police. They also must stay away from the victims and their families. The teens are also not allowed to access or store pornography.

Facebook chats led to Dropbox accounts

The teens used online Dropbox accounts that were created in 2015 to share images with one another. Some of the pictures showed nudity, according to an agreed statements of facts in the case. Of 61 pictures documented, 15 showed full faces or partial faces.

Some of the file names for the images included a girl's name, followed by the name of a body part.

The Dropbox accounts were created following discussions in a Facebook group where the subject of intimate photos of female students came up. Many members of the group acknowledged having such photos and were interested in exchanging them.

The six were youths at the time of the offences and there is a publication ban on their identities.

Teens were 'pushy'

Crown prosecutor Peter Dostal said Wednesday the boys were "naggy, pushy, making emotional promises" to get photos, which they used for "entertainment purposes" with disregard for the girls.

He said some of the girls were vulnerable. Their trust was broken, he said, as they were friends or acquaintances of the boys, or were dating them.

Crown attorney Peter Dostal said he was pleased with the judge's sentence. (Elizabeth Chiu/CBC)

Dostal said he is pleased with the judge's sentence, saying the court "kept the victims in mind."

"They did nothing wrong. They are entitled to share intimate photographs, intimate information. They are allowed to allow anyone into their zone of privacy that they wish on the understanding that the recipient would respect that," he said.

"We're very pleased with the result today."

Judge Scovil said the victims ranged from 13 to 18 years old. The average age was about 15.

'These girls did nothing wrong'

During sentencing, the judge took defence lawyers to task for arguing the girls should have known photos shared through the social media platform Snapchat could be saved. The judge said that position wrongfully blamed the victims.

"These girls did nothing wrong. It is not their fault," Scovil said, adding parents on both sides were also not at fault.

Defence lawyer Stan MacDonald took issue with the judge's characterization of the defence as victim blaming. (Elizabeth Chiu/CBC)

Defence lawyer Stan MacDonald took issue with the judge's characterization of the defence as victim blaming. He said the lawyers had presented an "alternative view."

"I don't think they were appropriate comments," MacDonald said.

"In my view, it's a misunderstanding of the submission. At no point in time did we make any attempt whatsoever to blame any victims."