Teen cyberbullies receive reduced sentences due to court technicality

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This article was published 02/09/2015 (3155 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two Manitoba teen brothers have been granted reduced sentences for carrying out one of the most extreme cases of cyberbullying and online sexual abuse ever discovered in the province.

The pair, who were 17 at the time of their offences, were given 16 months of jail, eight months of community supervision and 12 months of probation. The sentences were imposed concurrently on the four charges the accused pleaded guilty to, for a combined three-year overall sentence.

But the Manitoba Court of Appeal has now slashed that down to a two-year combined sentence. This includes 12 months behind bars, six months of community supervision and six months of probation.

The decision, released this week, should not be mistaken as the high court having sympathy for the offenders. The only reason they interfered in the original decision is because the judge made a “technical error” and exceeded the maximum penalty of two years custody and supervision that is allowed under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

The only way around this would have been to make the probation a stand-alone penalty, apart from the custody and supervision, which the original judge did not. Instead, the Appeal Court decided to just trim everything down.

“The facts in this case are disturbing,” wrote Justice Diana Cameron. “This sentence appeal involves the relatively recent phenomenon of the criminal use of social media.”

The victim, a 14-year-old girl, first had contact with the two accused through Facebook and other online platforms. She had been referred to the brothers by another teen, who told the girl he knew where she lived and would “do something to her” if she didn’t send him nude pictures.

Over a period of several days — and thousands of lines of online text messages — the brothers threatened her into taking and sending explicit photos of herself. Although they lived in the same small Manitoba community, they didn’t actually know each other or meet face to face.

“The communication was intense and relentless, occurring day and night,” provincial court Judge Don Slough said in handing down his decision in Dauphin. “The accused, acting in tandem, alternatively flattered and abused the victim, demanding progressively more explicit images; instructing the victim as to what sexual acts she was to perform and digitally record.”

The brothers promised the girl they would keep the images to themselves.

“They broke this promise, distributing explicit images, via social media, to various people within their common community, including people with whom the victim went to school. The images included her face, as well as her breasts and vagina,” said Slough.

The girl’s parents got suspicious in January 2014 when her behaviour and demeanour changed dramatically, court was told. They demanded to see her iPod and found some of the messages the boys had sent her. They immediately contacted RCMP.

Both accused were charged in May 2014 with possession of child pornography, distribution of child pornography, invitation to sexual touching and transmitting sexually explicit material to a child for a photo of a penis they sent her.

“The accused, having identified a vulnerable victim, subjected her to a relentless attack. The only apparent motivation for this attack being a desire to exploit, demean and humiliate the victim,” said Slough.

Both accused told police what they did “was fun, but now feel it was stupid.” They have been assessed as high risks to reoffend.

The mother of the victim filed an impact statement with court, saying her teen daughter has suffered extreme emotional distress and “has transformed from a happy child into someone who was deeply troubled.”

“Because the accused, using social media, sent images of the victim to the victim’s friends and other members of the community, this incident is well-known in the small town in which the victim resides. She has been called names at school. The victim’s mother states the family feels profound violation and have lost their sense of safety and security,” said Slough.