New details bring out more questions about Rehtaeh Parsons case

New revelations made public in the death of Rehtaeh Parsons guilelessly make the incidents that led to her suicide seem more complicated than previously believed, and the masses ready to lay guilt at the feet of those who were said to have sexually assaulted her have not reacted kindly.

The intriguing new chapter comes as new details of a supposed sex assault were released on Friday by the National Post’s Christie Blatchford, who dares to suggest that there may be more to the story than what is currently being alleged – that Parsons got drunk at a party on Nov. 12, 2011, and was raped by as many as four boys, who later released a photo that led to Rehtaeh being bullied and hanging herself.

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Supporters of those boys came out last week and demanded that judgment be delayed until the full story came out. If charges are never laid, the full story never will. But these are some of the details those people have been hoping for. The details that suggest charges may never come.

The Post reports that the key piece of evidence in the file is a statement from a witness – a friend of Rehtaeh’s – who suggested the sex was consensual. The friend said, sources told the Post, that she found Parsons “naked and laughing” in bed with two boys and unsuccessfully begged her to leave the party.

The report suggests the friend came back with her mother a short time later and, again, Rehtaeh refused to leave.

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There are other points to note, including a conversation between Parsons and her friends in which she portrayed the event as consensual but regretful. And the photo that was spread through social media and led to Parsons being bullied and taunted, did not contain her face – which doesn’t make the event any more acceptable but does make it less likely to lead to a conviction.

“It isn’t so clear that she was abused, let alone by two boys or three or four, let alone by the justice system,” Blatchford writes.

These new details won’t go far in convincing those who have sided with the Parsons family, nor should they. They don’t do much but lead to more questions about the series of events surrounding a drunk 15-year-old girl having sex a group of partners. A 15-year-old girl that said she didn’t remember much about the incident and who was later bullied and teased so badly that she attempted to take her own life.

But, as Blatchford points out, the new details go a long way to explain why charges may never come.

Blatchford’s stance did not go over well online, with many people accusing her of using the new information to “victim blame” Rehtaeh Parsons.