EXCLUSIVE: Mother of girl, 17, reveals how utter humiliation drove her 'angel' to suicide after 'bragging rapist' posted picture of ordeal online unleashing a torrent of abuse that continues even in death

Rehtaeh Parsons 'was raped by four classmates when she was 15'

They 'took a photo of the attack and circulated it around the school'

Photo shows 'rapist smiling as he has sex with Rehtaeh while she drunkenly vomits out of window'



Classmates and friends shunned her and she was forced to leave

Rehtaeh hanged herself on April 4 after a constant campaign of bullying on the Internet that lasted a staggering 17 months



Police investigated but did not press charges due to insufficient evidence

Her mother, Leah, says insulting comments have been posted to a Facebook remembrance page

The mother of a teenage girl who hanged herself because a picture of her being raped was sent to all her friends has spoken of her agony after sick internet trolls have continued to trash her memory even in death.



Leah Parsons said that she had to block users who said 17-year-old Rehtaeh 'deserved to die' on the official tribute page she set up on Facebook.



Trolls have set up a fake profile called ‘The Real Rehtaeh Parsons' with unflattering photos of her whilst other users wrote: 'I don't support whores, sorry.'

Speaking to MailOnline, Miss Parsons also revealed that the boy who allegedly raped her daughter then circulated the picture of the assault has admitted to her that he sent it to his friends because he was just ‘bragging’.

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Tragic: Rehtaeh Parsons, 17, killed herself after allegedly being gang-raped and then bullied

Assault: After the attack in November 2011, Rehtaeh tried to go to another school but was unable to focus so dropped out

He also denied being a rapist even though the photo shows him smiling as he has sex with Rehtaeh, who was 15 at the time, whilst she drunkenly vomits out of window.

Rehtaeh hanged herself a week ago after a constant campaign of bullying on the Internet and in real life that lasted a staggering 17 months even though she switched schools and moved house.



Her parents turned off her life support machine on Sunday.

It is a tragedy that has once again exposed the sinister underbelly of the internet and the power it gives people to destroy the lives of others from the safety of their laptops, phones and desks.

Hacking collective Anonymous has vowed to publish the identities of the alleged perpetrators amid fears that vigilantes could hunt them down because police did not charge anybody.

Shocking: Rehtaeh, pictured as a child with her mother, hanged herself on Thursday after a constant campaign of bullying on the internet

Cry for help: Rehtaeh's Twitter page shows that even in her final months she was angry and felt betrayed

MailOnline has been shown five names including two sets of brothers and but it is likely only a matter of time before they are ‘outed’ on social media - even if they are the wrong people.



But case also raises grave questions over the role of police in Halifax, Nova Scotia, mental health services and Cole Harbour High School, which Rehtaeh attended.



In inquiries and an interview with Mrs Parsons, 46, who runs a dog rescue centre, MailOnline has pieced together the most detailed account yet of what happened that night - and its tragic aftermath.



The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Halifax have refused to discuss the specifics of the investigation.



It was on November 12, 2011 that the rape is said to have taken place at the house of two brothers not far from Rehtaeh’s home in Cole Harbour.



The four boys who took part in the alleged sex attack were aged 14, two were 16 and one was 17, Miss Parsons said.

Despair: The mother thinks that Rehtaeh did not mean to hang herself in the bathroom of the house they shared, and said it was an 'impulsive' act that went wrong

Family: Leah Parsons, with her four daughters, Rehtaeh (right), set up a Facebook remembrance page in her daughter's memory

Fighting back the tears, she said: ‘Her and her friend went over there. She didn’t really know them, it wasn’t a party, it was just two girls went over to her friend’s house where two brothers lived and their friends came over later.



‘They started drinking some vodka straight. They were smoking (pot) and then her friend left. I asked Rehtaeh and she said it was about nine o’clock that they started drinking.



‘The last thing Rehtaeh remembers is somebody leading her up the stairs, she remembers that.



‘She remembers throwing up because she came too when her head hit the window pane. She remembers them taking her downstairs to another room where the other two boys were.’



Miss Parsons added: ‘She remembers them having sex with her while she’s throwing up out the window.

Grieving: Rehtaeh, with her father Glen Canning, said that his daughter died 'struggling to live'

‘She remembers them taking pictures and she heard the click of the phone once she threw up.



‘She remembers them taking turns on top of her upstairs. Downstairs when she woke up she was just naked and she didn’t know what happened. She remembers being led down there.’

The boys clearly had what they thought was good time - along with the picture of one of the boys allegedly raping her upstairs, the 14-year-old ‘was smirking and had his thumbs up’ after taking advantage of her downstairs.



But the worst was yet to come.



Miss Parsons said that the following Thursday the photo began circulating at Cole Harbour High School.



Dozens had seen it in the playground before Rehtaeh even got in.

Death: The 17-year-old was put on life support after she hanged herself at her home on April 4. Her parents turned off her life support machine three days later

In memory: Online petitions have started in support of Rehtaeh and asking for justice

It would be the last day she would walk through the school gates - she never went back.



Miss Parsons said: ‘She had a nervous breakdown on the Friday (the next day)



‘She was curled up in a ball in my kitchen and we had to call the mobile crisis unit. She was just rocking herself and she couldn’t really speak.



‘She told me (what happened) when she was writhing on the floor’.



By Miss Parsons’ count, ‘way over a hundred’ people saw the picture in Cole Harbour High and other schools in the area.



Rehtaeh started smoking pot to ‘numb her emotions’ and deal with Facebook messages and texts that came through by the dozen.



They read things like: ‘Sluts are not welcome here’ and ‘everyone knew exactly what you have done’.



Rehtaeh eventually closed down her Facebook page because there were so many men asking her to have sex with them. They would say: ‘You had sex with my friend, so why not me?’



The response from the school was, apparently, to do very little.



Halifax school board spokesman Doug Hadley has said that none of the boys were spoken to.



Neither was Miss Parsons, and she still has not had a conversation with anyone from the school even to this day.

Questions: The girl's mother wonders what more could have been done for Rehtaeh while she was still alive

She said: ‘The school did nothing. The school has never even contacted me. Once she left that school that day, the day she never went back, she’s no longer a student so they didn’t care.



‘The school should have stepped in and called them in and spoken to everybody about it.’



Meanwhile, the abuse continued.



Miss Parsons said: ‘It was total humiliation from her whole community.



‘It wasn’t the rape that sent her over the edge, as horrible as that was.



‘It’s the public humiliation and shame from her peer group, and everyone saw a picture of her getting raped.’

Describing how even Rehtaeh’s own friends turned against her, she said: ‘She was a friend the day before and the next day she’s a slut? And they’ve know her their whole life?



‘They’ve hung out here and had sleepovers here and they go from that after seeing a picture and a story that’s been told before Rehtaeh even reached the school. The story had hit the school and was circulating before she even reached the school that day.



‘Everyone knows that kids can be cruel but to really turn your back on her was the cruellest thing they could have done. A teenager, that’s the main thing in life, the acceptance in their peer group and the belonging to something.



‘She was the kind of kid for whom that was very important to her.’



In the ensuing 17 months Rehtaeh tried to go to another school but was unable to focus so dropped out.



Her former friends would abuse her in the street and she would have to leave if she saw them in case they started calling her names.



None of her inner circle stood up for her and she had to wait until several months later when one finally realized that she Rehtaeh had been telling the truth and begged her forgiveness.

Outrage: The girl told her mother that she remembered people taking pictures of her having sex while drunk at a party with friends from the Cole Harbour High School, where she attended

It was only when she moved in with her father in Halifax and found a new group of friends, including some who had known her from elementary school, that she thought that anyone believed her.



But that does not mean she did not struggle, with depression, with mood swings and a constant fear somebody would turn on her.



In April, last year Rehtaeh had herself committed for five weeks because she told her mother she was afraid she was going to kill herself.

Miss Parsons said: ‘They let her out to nothing. They put her in a drug program and she said I’m not a drug addict, why did they put me in here. She was just left to get on with it on her. They just let her go, they just let her go.’



Rehtaeh’s Twitter page shows that even in her final months she was angry and felt betrayed.



A Tweet from February 1 reads: ‘thinkin' 'bout my old friends who weren't my friends all along’.



Another from the same month reads: ‘What the f*** did I do to deserve this’ and ‘losing friends because of who I chose to stand by #F***YOUTHEN #mylife #mychoices #myconsequences’



On February 5, she wrote: ‘Someone come kill me I'm to pathetic to do it myself’



Her final Tweet, on March 31, is a retweet from rapper Haitian Fresh, which clearly had a resonance given what she had been through.



It reads: ‘U don't suk dick u don't swallow ya took a bathroom pic now u a model u a f****** liarrrrrr’.



To her surprise, Miss Parsons was actually contacted by the boy who raped her daughter. He wanted a face to face meeting but she refused.

Remembrance: Leah Parsons said her daughter was an animal lover

Helping others: The mother said Rehtaeh would gather up her friends to raise money for the local animal rescue

She said: ‘He said he’s very sorry and that he didn’t rape her, she wanted to have sex with her.



‘He did say he circulated the photo and he did brag about it. He’s concerned for his safety now. People know who he is because he circulated the photo.



‘He just said he was being an idiot and he was just bragging and it was wrong, that’s what he said. He still insists that he didn’t rape her.



‘I tried to tell this guy just because she wasn’t fighting and screaming she was too drunk to fight you off or even be able to think properly. She wasn’t even there, she wasn’t even with it. I tried to explain to him that that is rape.



‘He said he wasn’t a rapist, he would never rape somebody. I tried to explain to him, that’s what they don’t understand, the concept. He said he was drinking too, but (he) wasn’t as drunk as Rehtaeh.’



Miss Parsons thinks that Rehtaeh did not mean to hang herself in the bathroom of the house they shared, and said it was an ‘impulsive’ act that went wrong.



She had a supportive boyfriend, was looking for a job and had quit pot. She was going out in public again, feeling strong and more at peace with herself.



The real unanswered questions for Miss Parsons are what more should have been done for Rehtaeh while she was still alive.



Miss Parsons understands that police work can be difficult and without DNA evidence, she accepts that the rape would have been hard to prosecute.



But she found the lead investigator with the RCMP in Halifax to be ‘very cold and callous’ and that when she challenged her the response was: ‘I don’t have to justify my investigative techniques to you’.



She was also astonished that it took them 10 months to finally interview the boys.



Miss Parsons said: ‘When it comes to rape I realize it’s really hard with no hard evidence and that unless you’re walking down the street and you’re brutally attacked and there’s DNA all over you, the chances are they’re not going to take you seriously.



‘Of course, the four boys and this one girl - do you think a 15-year-old girl wants to have sex with four boys? No. That’s not what she went there for. It’s deplorable the fact that they weren’t charged with distributing that photo. It was child pornography.



'I said (to the lead investigator): ‘I know this is just another case for you but this is my daughter, this is my life.'



Victim: Rehtaeh hanged herself on April 4 after a constant campaign of bullying on the Internet and in real life that lasted a staggering 17 months even though she switched schools and moved house

‘I just don’t, I don’t understand why it would take 10 months to interview the boys. By that time their story is locked down solid, instead of getting them immediately and separating them.



‘They said they were interviewing everyone else first, all the friends who had the photos. They thought that was important, to interview them first.



‘The boys knew that everyone was being interviewed around them.’



The bullying that continued after Rehtaeh’s death was one of the reasons that Anonymous stepped in to demand that the RCMP charge the boys with something or it would make their identities public.

The hacking group is also organizing a protest outside the police HQ in Halifax this weekend.



The Facebook page called The Real Rehtaeh Parsons includes a picture of her smoking what appears to be cannabis - something her mother had long known she did - in an attempt to disparage her.



Others took to the page ‘Angel Rehtaeh’ that her mother had set up to vent their abuse.



A user called Jerica Jane Cary wrote in one thread: ‘I don’t support whores, sorry’. When challenged on her views she added: ‘The news told me different. Pfft’.



She then deleted her social networking accounts.



Miss Parsons said: We’ve had comments on the blog saying she’s (Rehtaeh) a ‘f****** whore’ saying she deserved to die.



‘These are people that I don’t think know her, they troll and make up fake profiles.

Abuse: Rehtaeh suffered abuse at the hands of her classmates, who would call her insulting names in the street

‘We’ve had to start banning them so when we did they made their own page. I think it’s just somebody in the cyber world, they want attention.’



Miss Parsons’ concerns are now turning to her other daughters, aged three and nine, and she is fearful they too will be bullied because of what happened to Rehtaeh.



The nine-year-old has been off school until now but wants to go back.



Special measures have now been put in place under which she will not be allowed outside during recess and that she will have to stay in a classroom with friends.



Teachers will also be watching out in case something happens and the whole school has been given a warning to watch its language around her.



What happens now in Rehtaeh’s case depends on Nova Scotia Justice Minister Ross Landry, who could order the case be re-examined but has not yet done so.



Meanwhile an online petition calling for the files to be re-opened has attracted 84,000 signatures and Anonymous is still pressing ahead with ‘Operation Justice For Rehtaeh’.



So far it claims it has confirmed two of the four identities.



Miss Parsons has said she does not want vigilante justice and that she wants to see the boys who raped her daughter go through the courts, but Rehtaeh’s father seems to disagree



In an emotional post on his website, photographer Glen Canning wrote that the ‘worst outcome’ would have been if she had had to go to court.



In his words she would have been ‘raped again’ by the justice system and that she would have had to watch as the boys were given a light sentence - assuming they had even been convicted - which would have ‘completely destroyed her life while they laughed’.



He wrote: ‘Why is it they didn’t just think they would get away with it; they knew they would get away with it.



‘They took photos of it. They posted it on their Facebook walls. They emailed it to God knows who. They shared it with the world as if it was a funny animation...



‘...My daughter wasn’t bullied to death, she was disappointed to death. Disappointed in people she thought she could trust, her school, and the police.

